EnvSwitch — .env Profile Manager

Switch between dev, staging, and prod .env profiles in one click. Secrets live in the OS keychain — never as plaintext files in your repo.

EnvSwitch demo

The problem every developer knows

You're juggling .env.dev, .env.staging, .env.prod sitting inside your project. One accidental git add . and your API keys are in the commit history — forever.

EnvSwitch removes those files from the equation. Every secret is stored in your OS keychain (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, Linux libsecret). Nothing sensitive ever touches disk.

How it stands out

	EnvSwitch	File-based switchers
Secrets stored in OS keychain	✅	❌ plaintext on disk
Validation against `.env.example`	✅	❌
Search a variable across all profiles	✅	❌
Side-by-side profile diff	✅	❌
Snapshot history + one-click restore	✅	❌
One-click switching	✅	✅
Works without extra config files in the repo	✅	❌

Features

Multiple profiles per workspace — dev, staging, prod, or any name you want
One-click activation from the sidebar, status bar, or Command Palette
Validation vs .env.example — instantly see missing, empty, and extra keys
Variable search across all profiles with masked values by default
Side-by-side diff between any two profiles
Snapshot history — every activation saves a restore point (last 5 snapshots)
Import from an existing .env file when creating a profile
Auto-sync — edits to the active .env file on disk are automatically picked up

Quick Start

Click the EnvSwitch icon in the Activity Bar (left sidebar).
Press + to create your first profile.
Give it a name (dev, prod, etc.) and confirm the target file (.env).
Choose to import your current .env or start empty.
Click the profile to activate it — done.

Switch anytime via the ENV button in the status bar or Ctrl+Shift+P → EnvSwitch: Switch Profile.

Usage

Validate against .env.example

Right-click any profile → Validate vs .env.example.

Result	Meaning
Missing	Required by `.env.example` but absent from this profile
Empty	Key exists but has no value
Extra	Present in profile but not in `.env.example`

Search a variable across profiles

Click the 🔍 icon in the EnvSwitch view header, or run EnvSwitch: Search Variable.

Pick a key to see its value in every profile at once
Values are masked by default — reveal only when you choose to
Copy to clipboard directly from the results

Compare two profiles

Click the diff icon in the view header, or run EnvSwitch: Compare Profiles. Opens a native VS Code diff editor with the two profiles side by side.

View history and restore

Right-click a profile → View History. Each activation creates a snapshot. Pick one to restore.

Security

All profile content is stored exclusively in the OS keychain (never written to disk in plaintext)
Search results mask secret values by default
Profiles are scoped per workspace
The extension makes no network requests

Requirements

VS Code 1.120.0 or later
A workspace folder must be open

Development

git clone https://github.com/bobsk8/env-switch.git
cd env-switch
npm install
npm run compile   # build once
npm run watch     # watch mode

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

To generate the .vsix package:

npm run package

Source Code & Transparency

This extension is fully open source. You can inspect every line of code, verify that no secrets leave your machine, and contribute or report issues on GitHub:

👉 github.com/bobsk8/env-switch

License

MIT

EnvSwitch

Rodrigo