Env Sorter

Keep your .env files clean. Env Sorter clusters variables by prefix and sorts each cluster alphabetically, on every save, as soon as it is installed — no settings to change. It also registers as a document formatter, so it runs on Format Document and participates in editor.formatOnSave if you use that.

On top of sorting it also:

• Warns about duplicate keys — a squiggle on any variable defined twice in the same file (most .env loaders silently keep the last one).
• Diffs against a template — Env Sorter: Compare with .example reports which keys your .env is missing from (or has beyond) its .env.example sibling.
• Finds variables fast — Env Sorter: Find Variable is a fuzzy quick-pick that jumps to a key, values previewed inline.
• Masks secrets — Env Sorter: Toggle Secret Value Masking hides secret-looking values behind dots for screen-shares and screenshots, including values quoted across multiple lines; the value under your cursor stays visible so you can still edit.

Behaviour

• Grouped by prefix. The prefix is the segment before the first delimiter (DB_HOST, DB_NAME → the DB group). The delimiter is _ by default and configurable (., -, …). Each group is separated from the next by a single blank line. A variable with a unique prefix forms its own one-line block.
• Alphabetical. Groups are ordered by prefix; variables within a group are ordered by key.
• Comments follow their variable. A run of comment lines directly above a KEY=VALUE moves with it into its group.
• File header / footer are pinned. Comment lines before the first variable stay at the top; comment lines after the last variable stay at the bottom.
• Multi-line quoted values are kept intact.
• Stable. Any blank lines the file already had are discarded and regenerated, so sorting an already-sorted file changes nothing.

Example

# Local dev config
NODE_ENV=development
APP_PORT=3000
APP_NAME=demo
DB_PASSWORD=p@ss
DB_HOST=localhost
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_test
STRIPE_PUBLIC_KEY=pk_test
DEBUG=true

becomes

# Local dev config

APP_NAME=demo
APP_PORT=3000

DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PASSWORD=p@ss

DEBUG=true

NODE_ENV=development

STRIPE_PUBLIC_KEY=pk_test
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_test

Settings

Commands

Run these from the Command Palette while an env file is focused:

Notes on comments

• A comment stays attached to a variable only when it sits directly above it with no blank line between. That comment travels with the variable.
• A comment that is the first non-blank content in the file is treated as a file header and stays at the top — it is never pulled down next to a variable.
• If a section-header comment (# Database) sits directly above a variable that is not the alphabetically-first one in its group, it will end up in the middle of the group. Put section headers above the first member, or accept that grouping already keeps the block together without the header.

Sorting on save

This is on by default — installing the extension is all it takes. It works regardless of your editor.formatOnSave / editor.formatOnSaveMode / editor.defaultFormatter settings, because the extension applies the sort itself before the file is written. Set envSorter.sortOnSave to false to opt out.

If you would rather drive it through VS Code's own format-on-save instead, set envSorter.sortOnSave to false and configure:

{
  "editor.formatOnSave": true,
  "[dotenv]": {
    "editor.defaultFormatter": "abdur-rehman.env-sorter"
  }
}

The dotenv language is contributed by this extension and matches .env, .env.*, and *.env files.

Developing

npm install
npm run compile   # or: npm run watch
npm test          # runs the unit tests (sorter + env parser)

Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host.