---
name: get-env-var
description: "get an env var, fetch a secret, missing env var, missing token/API key, load secrets from Infisical, infisical. Fetch secrets from the team's Infisical workspace into the shell environment so subsequent commands can use them."
---

# Skill: get-env-var

Fetch a secret from the team's Infisical workspace into the current shell so the next command can use it.

## When to use

- A command or script needs an env var that is not set, such as `BLOB_READ_WRITE_TOKEN`.
- A token, API key, or other secret is missing from the environment.
- The user asks to load secrets from Infisical.

## Setup (once per machine)

- Install the CLI on macOS: `brew install infisical/get-cli/infisical`.
- Check auth with `infisical user get`; if it fails, run `infisical login` and complete the browser flow.
- For CI or other non-interactive runs, set `INFISICAL_TOKEN` from a machine identity; the CLI skips login when it is present.
- This repo is already project-linked via tracked `.infisical.json` (`workspaceId: "e9f4542a-8714-46c3-a8fd-99d8cb370aeb"`, empty `defaultEnvironment`). From the repo root, `infisical` defaults to the `dev` environment slug when `--env` is omitted.

## Fetch one secret into the environment

Run from the repo root:

```bash
export NAME="$(infisical secrets get NAME --plain --silent)"
```

- Replace `NAME` with the secret name.
- Add `--env <slug>` for a non-default environment; this repo defaults to `dev`.
- Add `--path /some/folder` when secrets are organized in folders.

## Inject everything into a command

Run the command through Infisical so all project secrets are available only to that process:

```bash
infisical run -- <command>
```

## Discover, check, and forward without ever seeing a value

Always run from the repo root; outside it `infisical` errors and emits an empty stdout, which a downstream `gh secret set` will silently store.

```bash
# Which secrets exist? Names only, via structured output. Never list with
# --plain or the default table: both print values, and multi-line values
# (private keys) defeat any line-based filter such as cut or awk.
infisical secrets --env dev --output json --silent 2>/dev/null | jq -r '.[].secretKey'

# Does NAME exist and is it non-empty? Prints a byte count, never the value.
infisical secrets get NAME --plain --silent 2>/dev/null | wc -c

# Forward NAME to a consumer in one pipe (e.g. a GitHub Actions secret).
infisical secrets get NAME --plain --silent 2>/dev/null | gh secret set NAME --repo <owner>/<repo>
```

## Rules

- Never echo, print, or otherwise log secret values.
- Never write secrets to files, logs, commit messages, PR bodies, or comments.
- Only use `--plain` with `secrets get NAME` inside command substitution, as in `export NAME="$(...)"`, or piped straight into a single consumer as above. Never use `--plain` to list.
- Never pass a secret-bearing stream through `grep`, `rg`, `awk`, `sed`, `cut`, `head`, or any line-based filter: multi-line values and one mismatched pattern both land values in the tool output. Listing is `--output json | jq -r '.[].secretKey'` only.
- Treat every `infisical secrets ...` command as printing values unless it is the JSON name listing above, piped into `wc -c`, or piped into a consumer.
- If a secret does not exist, STOP and tell the user exactly which secret name and environment to add in Infisical; do not invent values.