a better dotenv–from the creator of dotenv.

• run anywhere (cross-platform)
• multi-environment
• encrypted envs

 

Quickstart

Keep the familiar load_dotenv() entry point with dotenvx loading semantics.

pip install python-dotenvx

The wheel includes native dotenvx Rust primitives. No dotenvx executable or post-install download is required.

# main.py
import os
from dotenvx import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()  # take environment variables from .env

print(os.getenv("S3_BUCKET"))

You can also parse values without changing the environment:

from dotenvx import dotenv_values

values = dotenv_values(".env")

Encrypted values are decrypted using DOTENV_PRIVATE_KEY from the environment or a neighboring .env.keys file.

 

Loading errors and policy

The main entry points use the shared dotenvx-ll Rust loader. Errors are printed to stderr and available values still load by default. Use strict=True, or set strictness in the current directory's Dotenvxfile, to raise before changing os.environ. Dotenvxfile required/type/file validation is shared with the CLI. Ignore selected diagnostics with ignore=["DECRYPTION_FAILED"].

The loader returns redaction metadata without changing application values; the adapter does not install application-output redaction hooks.

Deliberately smaller Python API

load_dotenv() and dotenv_values() accept an optional file path, or stream= for text input. Loading supports override=, strict=, and ignore=. Options after the file path are keyword-only. load_dotenvx(path, override=False) remains available and returns the resolved mapping after loading it.

Parsing, expansion, UTF-8 file decoding, and local key discovery belong to the shared Rust loader. Python no longer implements a second parser for bare keys or rewrites dollar signs to disable interpolation. Bare keys without = are ignored; use KEY= for an empty string. Single quotes preserve literal dollars.

The legacy interpolate, encoding, and verbose options, and the no-op find_dotenv(usecwd=...) option, are no longer supported. find_dotenv() still searches upward from the current directory.

Shared file selection

The Rust loader owns file discovery, directory expansion, conventions, and key-based filename inference. Pass one path or a list of paths; use convention="nextjs" or convention="flow", and key_files="custom.keys" when needed. The same file-selection and error-ignore environment variables used by the CLI are supported. find_dotenv() delegates upward searching to Rust.

load_dotenv(convention="nextjs")
load_dotenv([".env.production", ".env"])
load_dotenv("app", key_files="shared/.env.keys")