Docs/Environment Variables

Environment Variables

Manage secrets and configuration for your services. Encrypted at rest, injected at runtime.

Setting variables

Environment variables are set per-service from the dashboard or CLI. Changes trigger a new deployment automatically.

Dashboard

Open your service, click the Env Vars tab, add key-value pairs, and save. The editor supports bulk paste from .env files.

CLI

Terminal

$ lm env set DATABASE_URL=postgresql://...
✓ Variable set

$ lm env set STRIPE_KEY=sk_live_... API_KEY=abc123
✓ 2 variables set

$ lm env list
DATABASE_URL  ●●●●●●●●●●●●
STRIPE_KEY    ●●●●●●●●●●●●
API_KEY       ●●●●●●●●●●●●

API

cURL

curl -X POST https://api.launchmatic.io/v1/services/:id/env \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -d '{"vars": {"DATABASE_URL": "postgresql://..."}}'

Auto-detection

When using Quick Launch, Launchmatic scans your repository for .env.example, .env.sample, or .env.template files and extracts variable names. It also scans source files for process.env.XXX and os.environ patterns. Detected variables are shown in the config step so you can fill in values before deploying.

Encryption & security

All env var values are encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM with a per-installation encryption key.
Values are never logged or exposed in build logs.
In the dashboard, values are masked by default — click to reveal.
Variables are injected into the container at runtime via Kubernetes Secrets, not baked into images.

Reserved variables

Launchmatic injects these variables automatically. You cannot override them:

Variable	Description
PORT	The port your service should listen on
NODE_ENV	Set to 'production' in deployed environments
LAUNCHMATIC_SERVICE_ID	Unique service identifier
LAUNCHMATIC_DEPLOYMENT_ID	Current deployment identifier