Environment variables

Use environment variables for configuration and secrets: database URLs, API keys, feature flags.

Set variables

• When creating an app: in Advanced Settings → Environment Variables, one KEY=value per line. Lines starting with # are ignored, and export prefixes and surrounding quotes are handled.
• Later: open the app, go to Builds & Settings → Environment Variables, click Add Variable, then Save Environment.
• From the CLI: hivepod deploy --env DATABASE_URL=postgresql://... (repeat --env for each).
• From the MCP server: the set_env tool.

Example

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://usr_1a2b3c4d:secret@dark-rocket-k3x9.db.dockhive.xyz:10042/app?sslmode=require
SESSION_SECRET=change-me
NODE_ENV=production

Rules

• Names start with a letter or _ and contain only letters, digits and _ (up to 128 characters).
• Values are a single line.
• Up to 200 variables and 64 KB in total per app.
• PORT is set for you.

Secrets stay secret

Every value is encrypted at rest and never shown again in the console: existing values appear as •••••••• (unchanged). Values that appear in build or health-check output are replaced with ***.

When changes take effect

Saving variables doesn’t restart your app. They apply on the next deploy: click Redeploy (or push a commit with push to deploy on). A rollback also uses your current variables.

Variables are available when your app runs

Your app reads its environment variables at runtime. Values that some frameworks bake into the client bundle during the build (for example NEXT_PUBLIC_* or VITE_*) may not be picked up from your app’s settings, and anything that ends up in a client bundle is public anyway. Keep such public, non-secret values in your code or a committed config file, and never put secrets in them.