25 added, 116 removed. Audit B to B.
---
name: env-setup
- description: Scan codebase for environment variables, generate .env.example, validate .env completeness, and detect leaked secrets.
+ description: Scans a codebase for environment variable usage to generate or sync .env.example, validate .env completeness against what the code actually reads, and detect leaked secrets in .env or git history. Use for "/env-setup", "update .env.example", "sync .env.example with the codebase", "check if .env has everything it needs", "is .env in .gitignore", or "scan for leaked secrets in .env". Not a full security audit (use review-security for OWASP-level scanning) and not a generic secret-rotation or CI-secrets-injection tool.
metadata:
author: mgiovani
- version: 1.0.0
- source: https://github.com/mgiovani/skills
+ version: 1.1.0
disable-model-invocation: true
argument-hint: '[scan|validate|sync] [--check-secrets]'
allowed-tools:
- Read
- Write
- Edit
- Grep
- Glob
- Bash(git *)
- - AskUserQuestion
---
# Env Setup
- > **Cross-Platform AI Agent Skill**
- > This skill works with any AI agent platform that supports the skills.sh standard.
-
Scan the codebase for environment variable usage, generate or update `.env.example`, validate `.env` completeness, and detect leaked secrets.
## Anti-Hallucination Guidelines
- **CRITICAL**: Only report variables that are actually found in the code:
+ Only report variables that are actually found in the code:
1. **Grep before reporting** — Never invent variable names; only list what grep actually returns
2. **Read .env.example before writing** — Preserve existing entries; only add/update what changed
3. **No actual secrets** — `.env.example` must only contain placeholder values (e.g., `your_api_key_here`)
4. **Verify .gitignore** — Actually read the file before claiming `.env` is ignored
+ 5. **Never echo a found secret value** — when Phase 6 flags a leaked secret, report the variable name and `file:line` only. Never print, quote, or write the actual value into chat output, a report file, or anywhere else — the scan's job is to locate leaks, not to create a second one.
## Workflow
### Phase 1: Scan Codebase
- Grep for environment variable patterns per language/framework:
-
- **Node.js / TypeScript**:
- ```bash
- grep -rE "process\.env\.([A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*)" --include="*.ts" --include="*.js" --include="*.mjs" -h . \
- | grep -oE "process\.env\.[A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*" | sort -u
- ```
-
- **Python**:
- ```bash
- grep -rE 'os\.environ\[["'"'"']([A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*)["'"'"']\]|os\.getenv\(["'"'"']([A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*)["'"'"']' \
- --include="*.py" -h . | grep -oE '[A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]+' | sort -u
- ```
-
- **Ruby**:
- ```bash
- grep -rE 'ENV\[["'"'"']([A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*)["'"'"']\]' --include="*.rb" -h . \
- | grep -oE 'ENV\["[^"]*"\]' | grep -oE '"[^"]+"' | tr -d '"' | sort -u
- ```
-
- **Rust**:
- ```bash
- grep -rE 'env::var\("([A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*)"\)' --include="*.rs" -h . \
- | grep -oE '"[A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*"' | tr -d '"' | sort -u
- ```
-
- **Java / Kotlin**:
- ```bash
- grep -rE 'System\.getenv\("([A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*)"\)' --include="*.java" --include="*.kt" -h . \
- | grep -oE '"[A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*"' | tr -d '"' | sort -u
- ```
-
- **Framework-specific prefixes** (scan for these in config files):
- - `NEXT_PUBLIC_*` — Next.js client-exposed variables
- - `VITE_*` — Vite client-exposed variables
- - `REACT_APP_*` — Create React App client-exposed variables
- - `NUXT_PUBLIC_*` — Nuxt.js public variables
-
- **Docker Compose**:
- ```bash
- grep -rE "^\s+- [A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*=" docker-compose.yml docker-compose.*.yml 2>/dev/null \
- | grep -oE "[A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*=" | tr -d "=" | sort -u
- ```
+ Grep for environment variable usage matching the project's actual language/framework — see `references/scan-patterns.md` for the ready-to-run pattern per language (Node/TS, Python, Ruby, Rust, Java/Kotlin, Docker Compose, client-exposed prefixes). Only run the pattern(s) for stacks present in the repo.
Also scan:
- `.env.example` (existing entries to preserve)
- `config/` directory for config files referencing env vars
- Framework config files (`next.config.js`, `vite.config.ts`, etc.)
### Phase 2: Categorize Variables
- Group discovered variables by prefix/service:
-
- ```
- Database: DATABASE_URL, DB_HOST, DB_PORT, DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD
- Cache: REDIS_URL, REDIS_HOST, REDIS_PORT
- Auth: JWT_SECRET, AUTH_SECRET, NEXTAUTH_SECRET, SESSION_SECRET
- OAuth: GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID, GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET, GITHUB_CLIENT_ID
- Stripe: STRIPE_SECRET_KEY, STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY, STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET
- AWS: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_REGION, S3_BUCKET
- Email: SMTP_HOST, SMTP_PORT, SENDGRID_API_KEY, RESEND_API_KEY
- App config: NODE_ENV, PORT, BASE_URL, APP_URL
- Client vars: NEXT_PUBLIC_*, VITE_*, REACT_APP_*
- ```
+ Group discovered variables by prefix/service — see the service prefix table in
+ `references/scan-patterns.md` for the standard groupings (Database, Cache, Auth, OAuth,
+ Stripe, AWS, Email, App config, Client vars).
Classify each variable:
- **Required vs Optional** (required if no default/fallback in code)
- **Secret vs Config** (secret if it contains key/secret/password/token in name)
- **Client-exposed** (`NEXT_PUBLIC_*`, `VITE_*` — flag if contains secrets)
### Phase 3: Compare with .env.example
Read existing `.env.example` (if it exists):
```bash
# Variables in code but NOT in .env.example (missing)
# Variables in .env.example but NOT in code (undocumented/stale)
# Variables in both (up to date)
```
Report:
- Missing vars (need to be added to `.env.example`)
- Stale vars (in `.env.example` but no longer used)
- Up-to-date vars
### Phase 4: Generate / Update .env.example
**For `scan` or `sync` operations**:
Generate `.env.example` with:
- SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE variable names
- Grouped by service (with section comments)
- Placeholder values for secrets, real defaults for config
- Type and description comments
- Example output format:
```bash
# =============================================================================
# Database
# =============================================================================
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/app_development
- DB_HOST=localhost
- DB_PORT=5432
-
- # =============================================================================
- # Authentication
- # =============================================================================
- # Generate with: openssl rand -hex 32
- JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret_here
- NEXTAUTH_SECRET=your_nextauth_secret_here
-
- # =============================================================================
- # Stripe (https://dashboard.stripe.com/apikeys)
- # =============================================================================
- STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_test_your_key_here
- STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=pk_test_your_key_here
- STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=whsec_your_webhook_secret_here
-
- # =============================================================================
- # App Config
- # =============================================================================
- NODE_ENV=development
- PORT=3000
- BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000
+ JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret_here # openssl rand -hex 32
```
- **Rules**:
- - Never include real values from `.env` — only placeholders
- - Preserve existing comments and groupings in `.env.example`
- - When updating, only add missing variables; do not reorder existing ones
+ Full section-header style and rules (preserve existing entries, only add what's missing,
+ never a real value) — see `references/env-example-template.md`, load it when writing the
+ actual file.
### Phase 5: Validate .env (if `validate` subcommand or `.env` exists)
Read `.env` and check:
1. **Missing required variables**: Every variable in code without a default/fallback must be set
2. **Empty values**: `VAR=` with no value is suspicious for required vars
3. **Stale variables**: Present in `.env` but not found in codebase scan
4. **`.gitignore` check**: Verify `.env` (and `.env.local`) are in `.gitignore`
```bash
grep -E "^\.env" .gitignore 2>/dev/null
```
Warn clearly if `.env` is NOT in `.gitignore`.
### Phase 6: Secret Detection (if `--check-secrets`)
**Scan `.env` for high-entropy strings and known secret patterns**:
```bash
# Check for common secret patterns
- grep -iE "(password|secret|api_key|private_key|token|auth_key)\s*=\s*['\"]?[a-zA-Z0-9+/]{20,}" .env 2>/dev/null
+ grep -iE "(password|secret|api_key|private_key|token|auth_key)\s*=\s*['\"]?[A-Za-z0-9+/_.=-]{16,}" .env 2>/dev/null
```
+ The character class includes `_`, `-`, `.` alongside base64's `+/=` — most real key formats
+ (`sk_live_...`, `xoxb-...`, `AKIA...`) contain underscores or hyphens, and a base64-only class
+ silently misses them.
+
**Check git history for leaked secrets**:
```bash
git log --all --full-history --diff-filter=A -p -- .env 2>/dev/null | grep -iE "(password|secret|key)\s*=" | head -20
```
+ Report each hit as a commit + `file:line` reference (e.g. `git log` output line, or
+ `.env:12`) — never paste the matched value itself into the report.
+
**Flag client-exposed secrets**:
- Check `NEXT_PUBLIC_*`, `VITE_*`, `REACT_APP_*` variables
- - If any contain "secret", "key", "password", "token" in the name — warn loudly
+ - If any contain "secret", "key", "password", "token" in the name — warn loudly, by variable name only
**Recommend pre-commit tools**:
- `detect-secrets` (Python): `pip install detect-secrets && detect-secrets scan > .secrets.baseline`
- `gitleaks`: `gitleaks detect --source=.`
## Argument Parsing
- `scan` (default): Scan codebase, generate/update `.env.example`
- `validate`: Validate `.env` against discovered variables
- `sync`: Sync `.env.example` to match current codebase (add missing, mark stale)
- `--check-secrets`: Enable secret detection in `.env` and git history
## Important Notes
- - **NEVER include real secrets** in `.env.example` — only placeholder values
- - **Client-exposed vars** (`NEXT_PUBLIC_*`, `VITE_*`) are bundled into the frontend — never put secrets there
- - **`.env` must be gitignored** — always verify and warn if not
+ - **Never include real secrets** in `.env.example` — only placeholder values
+ - **Never echo a found secret's value** — report variable name + `file:line` only, whether the finding goes to chat or a report file
+ - **Client-exposed vars** (`NEXT_PUBLIC_*`, `VITE_*`) are bundled into the frontend — flag if their name suggests a secret
+ - **`.env` must be gitignored** — verify and warn if not
- **Historical leaks matter** — even if `.env` is gitignored now, it may have been committed in the past
- **Stale variables** in `.env` can be security risks — document and remove unused ones
-
- ## Examples
-
- ```bash
- # Scan codebase and generate .env.example
- /env-setup
-
- # Scan with explicit subcommand
- /env-setup scan
-
- # Validate existing .env completeness
- /env-setup validate
-
- # Sync .env.example with current codebase
- /env-setup sync
-
- # Full scan + secret detection
- /env-setup scan --check-secrets
- ```