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Environment variable

An environment variable is a setting handed to your app when it starts, kept outside the code so the value never has to be written into a file you share.

Also called: env var, config value

Your app needs to know things that are yours: which store, which key, where the database lives. Put those in the code and they travel with every copy of it.

Instead they sit in a small settings file on the machine that runs the app, or in a settings screen where your app is hosted, and the app reads them as it starts, how identical code runs on your laptop and online with different values.

The part to get right: the file holding the real values is never saved into version history, and everything in it is a secret.

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I just did this: <what you clicked or typed, in a few words>
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1 of 7 Where do you sell online?
2 of 7 Would you like software built around exactly how your business works?
3 of 7 When something in your software needs changing, how do you want that to happen?
4 of 7 Have you ever written code?
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6 of 7 Do you pay monthly for an app where you only really use one or two of its features?
7 of 7 Building your app means using an AI assistant like Claude or ChatGPT on a paid monthly plan. Are you OK with that?