Environment Variables

Managing environment variables in production

Overview

FrankenDeploy stores environment variables per application in a .env.local file on the server. Each application has its own isolated environment variables that persist across deployments.

Important: Environment variables are tied to the current project (defined in frankendeploy.yaml), not to the server globally.

Setting Variables

# Set a single variable
frankendeploy env set prod APP_SECRET="your-secret-key"
frankendeploy env set prod DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:pass@host/db"

# Apply changes immediately (rolling restart)
frankendeploy env set prod MAILER_DSN="smtp://..." --reload

Without --reload, changes take effect on the next deployment.

Listing Variables

frankendeploy env list prod

Sensitive values (passwords, secrets, tokens) are automatically masked in the output.

Getting a Single Variable

frankendeploy env get prod DATABASE_URL

Removing Variables

frankendeploy env remove prod OLD_VARIABLE

Bulk Operations

Push a .env file

Push a local .env file to the server. Variables are merged with existing ones:

# Create a local .env.prod file
echo "APP_SECRET=my-secret" > .env.prod
echo "DATABASE_URL=postgresql://..." >> .env.prod

# Push to server
frankendeploy env push prod .env.prod

# Push and apply immediately
frankendeploy env push prod .env.prod --reload

Pull from server

Download current environment variables to a local backup file:

frankendeploy env pull prod
# Creates .env.prod.backup

Zero-Downtime Updates

The --reload flag performs a rolling restart:

1. Starts a new container with updated environment
2. Waits for health check to pass
3. Switches traffic to the new container
4. Removes the old container

This minimizes downtime to near-zero.

Required Variables

For Symfony applications, you typically need:

Security Notes

• Variables are stored in /opt/frankendeploy/apps/<app>/shared/.env.local
• The file is mounted read-only into containers
• Never commit .env.prod.backup files to git
• Use strong, unique secrets for production

Workflow Example

# 1. Configure your production environment
frankendeploy env set prod APP_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
frankendeploy env set prod DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:pass@db.example.com/myapp"

# 2. Deploy your application
frankendeploy deploy prod --remote-build

# 3. Later, update a variable with zero downtime
frankendeploy env set prod FEATURE_FLAG=enabled --reload