envlit

A simple CLI tool to organize, load, and switch between your project's environment variable contexts.

Installation

pip install envlit

Quick Start

Initialize envlit in your shell (add to .bashrc or .zshrc):

eval "$(envlit init)"

Create a config file at .envlit/default.yaml:

dotenv:
  - "./.env"
  - "./.env.local"

env:
  PROJECT_MODE: "Development"
  DEBUG: "true"

Dotenv paths are relative to the YAML file. Later dotenv files override earlier ones with a warning, and env: overrides dotenv values last. Declared files are required; envlit never auto-discovers .env files.

Load and unload environment variables:

el                       # Load default profile
echo $PROJECT_MODE       # Output: Development (variable set by envlit)
echo $DEBUG              # Output: true (variable set by envlit)

eul                      # Unload environment variables
echo $PROJECT_MODE       # Output: (empty - variable restored to original state)
echo $DEBUG              # Output: (empty - variable restored to original state)

Features

Smart state tracking - Detects manual changes and preserves them
Dynamic flags - YAML-defined flags become CLI options
Path operations - Prepend, append, remove path entries
Lifecycle hooks - Run scripts before/after load/unload
Config inheritance - Extend base configurations
Explicit dotenv imports - Load one or more .env files with deterministic precedence

Comparison with Similar Tools

Feature	envlit	direnv	dotenv
Auto-activation on cd	❌	✅	❌
Manual load/unload	✅	❌	✅
State restoration	✅ Full restore	⚠️ Basic	❌ No
Config format	YAML	Shell/direnvrc	`.env`
Dynamic CLI flags	✅	❌	❌
PATH operations	✅	✅	❌
Lifecycle hooks	✅ 4 stages	⚠️ Limited	❌
Config inheritance	✅	❌	❌
Manual change detection	✅	❌	❌

Key Differences:

envlit: Manual control with explicit load/unload. Full state tracking with restoration. Better for variable contexts that you want to toggle on demand.
direnv: Automatically activates on directory change. Great for per-directory isolation but less control over when environments load. Basic restoration.
dotenv: Simple .env file loading, no restoration or advanced features. Good for 12-factor apps but lacks state management.

When to use envlit:

You want CLI flags that map to environment variables (especially useful for long names and values)
You want explicit control over when environments load/unload
You need to preserve user modifications and restore clean state
You need complex PATH operations or lifecycle hooks

AI Agent Skill

[!TIP] Install the envlit skill to let your AI assistant manage envlit profiles directly.

Claude Code — install via marketplace:
/plugin marketplace add luocfprime/envlit
/plugin install envlit-skill@envlit
Or copy skills/envlit/SKILL.md to ~/.claude/skills/envlit/SKILL.md

Documentation

Visit luocfprime.github.io/envlit for full documentation.

Development

# Install dependencies
make install

# Run tests
pytest

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

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