Env Guardman

A VS Code extension that automatically detects differences between .env.example and .env, notifying you of missing environment variables and helping you add them interactively.

Everything runs locally — no secrets are ever sent over the network.

The Problem

In team development, someone adds a new variable to .env.example, you pull the latest code, and your app breaks with a cryptic error — all because you didn't notice the missing env var. Env Guardman prevents this.

Features

Auto Diff Check — Automatically compares .env.example and .env when the workspace opens, a Git branch is switched, or a file is saved
Warning Notification — Shows a warning popup when missing variables are detected
Interactive Input — Click "Add Now" to fill in missing variables one by one via InputBox and append them to .env
Status Bar — Always shows .env OK or .env: N missing at a glance
Command Palette — Manually run checks or add missing variables anytime
Fully Local — Zero network requests, your secrets stay safe

Usage

Open a project containing .env.example in VS Code
The diff check runs automatically
If any variables are missing, a warning notification appears
Click "Add Now" to enter the values

Commands

Command	Description
`Env Guardman: Check Missing Variables`	Manually run a diff check
`Env Guardman: Add Missing Variables`	Launch the input wizard for missing variables

Settings

Customize the behavior in VS Code settings (settings.json).

Setting	Type	Default	Description
`envGuardman.templateFile`	`string`	`.env.example`	Path to the template env file (relative to workspace root)
`envGuardman.envFile`	`string`	`.env`	Path to the actual env file (relative to workspace root)
`envGuardman.ignorePatterns`	`string[]`	`[]`	Regex patterns for variable names to ignore
`envGuardman.checkOnOpen`	`boolean`	`true`	Run check when the workspace is opened
`envGuardman.checkOnBranchSwitch`	`boolean`	`true`	Run check when a Git branch is switched
`envGuardman.checkOnSave`	`boolean`	`true`	Run check when `.env` or `.env.example` is saved

Example

{
  // Ignore variables starting with OPTIONAL_
  "envGuardman.ignorePatterns": ["^OPTIONAL_"],
  // Disable check on branch switch
  "envGuardman.checkOnBranchSwitch": false
}

Supported .env Format

# Comment lines (ignored)
KEY=value
EMPTY_KEY=
KEY_ONLY
QUOTED="hello world"
SINGLE_QUOTED='hello world'
INLINE_COMMENT=value # inline comments are stripped
URL=postgres://host:5432/db?opt=1  # = inside values is preserved

Privacy & Security

Makes zero network requests
.env values are never included in logs or telemetry
All processing happens locally within VS Code

Contributing

Bug reports and feature requests are welcome on GitHub Issues.

To contribute code, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT