envops

A single-file CLI to inspect and manipulate .env files, designed to be safe by default: values that look like secrets are masked in all output unless you explicitly ask otherwise.

Built with Python stdlib only — a plain python3 (≥3.10) runs it.

Though it works as a regular CLI, envops is first and foremost a skill for AI agents: the bundled skill (skills/envops/SKILL.md) makes the agent route every .env operation through envops — never cat or read env files directly, prefer masked output, treat --unsafe as a last resort — so credentials never leak into the conversation, logs, or context.

Install

Install the skill into your agent (Claude Code, etc.) with skills:

npx skills add reorx/envops

Or with skm:

skm install https://github.com/reorx/envops

That's all — the skill carries the CLI's own install steps, so the agent sets up the envops command by itself the first time it needs it.

Usage

show — print key-value pairs (secrets masked)

envops show ./test.env

FOO=hello
API_SECRET=sk******ij
DATABASE_URL=po******pp
DEBUG=true

Show only certain keys; add --unsafe to expose masked values — use with caution and compromise in mind:

envops show ./test.env -k FOO BAR
envops show ./test.env -k API_SECRET --unsafe

list-keys — list keys only

envops list-keys ./test.env

copy — copy pairs from source to dest

Specify keys with -k, or --full to copy every pair. Changes made to the dest file are printed (masked):

envops copy ./test.env /path/to/dest.env -k FOO BAR
envops copy ./test.env /path/to/dest.env --full

+ BAR="quoted value"
~ FOO=hello (was old_foo)
updated /path/to/dest.env: 2 change(s)

+ means the key was added, ~ means its value was updated. Keys already equal in dest are left untouched. Unrelated lines, comments, and formatting in dest are preserved; the dest file is created if it doesn't exist.

set — set a key's value from stdin

echo value | envops set ./test.env -k FOO
pbpaste | envops set ./test.env -k API_SECRET

One trailing newline is stripped from stdin. Existing keys are updated in place; new keys are appended.

read-value — print a key's raw value

Only use this when the other commands cannot solve the problem, as it exposes the value. --unsafe is required; without it the command fails:

envops read-value ./test.env -K FOO --unsafe

Remote files over SSH

Any file argument may be an scp-style remote path ([user@]host:/path, a colon before the first slash marks it remote). Hosts, keys, and options come from your regular ssh config:

envops show foo@bar:/app/.env
envops copy /tmp/test.env foo@bar:/app/.env --full
envops copy foo@bar:/app/.env ./local.env -k DATABASE_URL

Remote handling keeps the tool's safety guarantees:

• remote content is only ever held in memory — no plaintext temp file lands on the local disk
• writes are atomic: content goes to a mktemp file next to the target, then mv replaces it, so a dropped connection can't leave a half-written .env
• the target's permissions are preserved (stat -c on Linux, stat -f on macOS/BSD remotes; 600 for newly created files)
• output masking works exactly as for local files

Secret detection

A value is masked when any of these match — except pure-numeric values (timeouts, sizes, retry counts like AUTH_TOKEN_EXPIRE=604800), which are never treated as secrets:

• Key name contains SECRET, TOKEN, PASSWORD, API_KEY, ACCESS_KEY, PRIVATE, CREDENTIAL, AUTH, SALT, SIGNING, DSN, ... (case-insensitive) — unless the key's last word marks plain config (URL, URI, ENDPOINT, HOST, PORT, DOMAIN, PATH, NAME, TELEMETRY, ...), so BETTER_AUTH_URL is not treated as a secret by its name alone
• Value prefix matches known credential formats: sk-, ghp_, glpat-, xoxb-, AKIA..., JWT (eyJ...), etc.
• Random-looking token run: the value contains an unbroken alphanumeric run of ≥20 chars that mixes letters and digits with Shannon entropy ≥3.5

The entropy check works on alphanumeric runs, so structured values — hostnames (oss-cn-beijing.aliyuncs.com), bucket names (myapp-demo-snapshot), db names — are cut into short segments by - . _ / and pass in the clear.

URL-shaped values (<scheme>://..., any scheme word) are masked per segment instead of as a whole, so the recognizable parts stay readable:

• the userinfo password is always masked — weak passwords are still passwords
• random-looking runs in the path/query are masked (webhook tokens, etc.)
• scheme, username, host, and port stay in the clear

NEO4J_URL=neo4j://neo4j:12******cc@102.10.101.125:7687
SLACK_WEBHOOK=https://hooks.slack.com/services/T01ABCDEFGH/B02JKLMNOPQ/x9******ty

Masked form keeps the first and last 2 characters (sk******ij) so you can tell credentials apart without leaking them.

Env file handling

• Supports export KEY=value, single/double quotes, inline # comments on unquoted values
• Duplicate keys: last occurrence wins (dotenv semantics)
• On write, values containing spaces or special characters are double-quoted with escaping
• Writes preserve comments, blank lines, and unrelated lines byte-for-byte

Development

uv run pytest

Tests invoke the CLI as a subprocess and assert on real command behavior.