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Environment variables

You can define environment variables and use them in Markdown and React pages in the project. By default, environment variables are not available in the browser. To access environment variables in React or Markdown pages, you have to prefix them with PUBLIC_.

Define environment variables using one of the following two ways:

  • Use the shell (in other words, in your local environment, CI)
  • Create .env file in the root of the project

Example .env file can look like this:

PUBLIC_CUSTOM_VARIABLE=Hello
PUBLIC_IS_PRODUCTION=true
PUBLIC_BUILD_NUMBER=50

Using the REDOCLY_ENV variable, you can set up different environments and use separate .env files like .env.production, .env.development, and .env.preview based on your needs.

When hosting your project at Redocly, we will automatically set the proper REDOCLY_ENV variable.

  • for production builds, the REDOCLY_ENV variable will be set to "production".
  • for previews, the REDOCLY_ENV variable will be set to "preview".

Do not use environment variables with sensitive information like passwords or API keys on the pages because all users of the project can see them.

React

To use environment variables in your React code, refer to them using the following syntax: process.env.<env_var_name>

The following is an example of using an environment variable in a Typescript file:

import * as React from 'react';


export default function () {

  const buildNumber: number = parseInt(process.env.PUBLIC_BUILD_NUMBER || '')

  return (
    <div>
        <h1>My custom variable value is {process.env.PUBLIC_CUSTOM_VARIABLE}</h1>
        <h2>Is this running in production? - {process.env.PUBLIC_IS_PRODUCTION}</h2>
        <h3>Is build number high? - {buildNumber > 40 ? 'Yes' : 'No'}</h3>
    </div>
  );

Environment variables always have String type. PUBLIC_IS_PRODUCTION and PUBLIC_BUILD_NUMBER from example above will become "true" and "50" when used in React components. To get them in desired type, you'll have to do manual conversion.

Markdown

In Markdown files, access environment variables using Markdoc variables syntax under env namespace:

# My custom variable is {% $env.PUBLIC_CUSTOM_VARIABLE" %}