📄 env-native

Minimalistic, zero-dependency .env loader powered by Node.js's native util.parseEnv. Significantly faster and smaller than dotenv and dotenvx. Designed for performance-critical, production-grade use cases in demanding environments.

🚀 Features

• Zero dependencies
• Fast and lightweight
• Just 8 KB in size
• Uses built-in util.parseEnv
• Simple API: config(options) or parse(content, options)
• Supports custom file paths and variable overrides
• Supports both ESM and CJS
• No self-promotion or console spam, unlike dotenv
• Requires Node.js ≥ 20.12.0

📦 Installation

npm

npm install env-native

yarn

yarn add env-native

Make sure you're using Node.js version 20.12.0 or newer.

🧪 Benchmark (Node.js v22.17.0)

Module	Package Size	Workstation (ms)	Thin Client (ms)
env-native (ESM)	~ 9 KB	0.793, 0.789, 0.782, 0.766	2.552, 2.971, 2.743, 2.516
dotenv (CJS)	~ 79 KB	7.712, 8.067, 8.1, 8.613	37.409, 40.966, 37.919, 35.935
dotenvx (CJS)	~ 293 KB	71.363, 71.766, 70.93, 70.828	252.899, 248.658, 249.393, 269.038

env-native is fast, clean, and native — with no logs, no overhead, and up to 90× faster than dotenvx on weaker systems. dotenvx is maintained by the same author as dotenv.

Test Environment

Workstation

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX
• Disk: KINGSTON SKC3000S1024G (NVM Express 1.4)
• OS: Windows 11 Home

Thin Client

• CPU: AMD GX-420GI
• Disk: WD Red WDS500G1R0B (M.2 SATA)
• OS: Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS (Linux 6.8.0-63-generic)

🧪 Example

.env

HELLO_WORLD="Keyboard cat memes make your day better! https://youtu.be/J---aiyznGQ"

process.js

require('env-native').config();
console.log(process.env.HELLO_WORLD); // Keyboard cat memes make your day better! https://youtu.be/J---aiyznGQ

🧩 API

config(options?)

Loads a .env file and injects its variables into process.env.

Parameters

Option	Type	Default	Description
path	string	.env	Path to your .env file
encoding	string	utf8	File encoding
override	boolean	false	Overwrite existing process.env variables

Note: All injected variables are always stored as strings in process.env.

Returns

void

Example with options

require('env-native').config({ path: './config/.env', override: true });

parse(content: string, options?)

Parses raw .env file content using the native util.parseEnv. Does not inject anything into process.env.

Parameters

Option	Type	Default	Description
coerce	boolean	true	Automatically converts values: "false" → false, "42" → 42, etc.
freeze	boolean	true	Freeze returned object (immutable)

Returns

Record<string, string | number | boolean>

Example

const { readFileSync } = require('node:fs');
const { parse } = require('env-native');

const raw = readFileSync('./config/.my-env-file', 'utf8');
const parsed = parse(raw, { coerce: true, freeze: true });

console.log(parsed);

🔒 License

Copyright 2025 © by Sefinek. All rights reserved.