env-doctor quickstart — audit .env in 5 minutes

Goal

Audit a project .env against .env.example and fix drift, duplicates, placeholders, and risky secrets.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9+ installed
• A project with .env and .env.example files

Steps

1. Get env-doctor (clone it once, anywhere):

   git clone https://github.com/techdevfun/env-doctor.git
   cd env-doctor
   # Optional: make the command available from any folder
   pip install -e .

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2. From your PROJECT folder (not the env-doctor folder), run the check against your project's files:

   cd /path/to/your-project
   python -m env_doctor check --env .env --example .env.example

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   Point --env / --example at your project files (absolute or project-relative paths). Do not run it against the env-doctor folder itself.

3. Fix drift by hand: add missing keys to .env.example as empty placeholders, and remove keys that should no longer exist. env-doctor does not auto-fix yet — its auto-fix flag is on the roadmap, not implemented.
4. Also flag vars not referenced in code (still from your project folder):

   python -m env_doctor check --env .env --example .env.example --scan .

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Expected output (drift example)

[ERROR] duplicate-key: Duplicate key 'DATABASE_URL' (line 3)
[ERROR] missing-in-env: 'NEW_API_URL' is in .env.example but missing in .env
Summary: 2 error(s), 2 warning(s), 3 key(s).

Verify

Re-run the check. You should see Summary: 0 error(s). Exit code 0 means no errors.

Troubleshoot

• Command not found: check python --version is 3.9+ and env-doctor is installed / on PYTHONPATH and you are in your project folder.
• Warnings only: warnings do not fail the run. Review them; do not blindly delete vars.
• Leaked secret: env-doctor does not fix leaked secrets — rotate the secret immediately.