I assume you have a Node.js project set up to use ES modules, and you want to use a .env file to store a secret, like this:

PASSWORD=secret

And you want to have it available in your Node.js script.

Here’s how to do it.

Install the dotenv package:

npm i dotenv

Then use this code:

import * as dotenv from 'dotenv'
dotenv.config()
console.log(process.env.PASSWORD)

This assumes you use ES modules (if not, it’s as easy as adding "type": "module", in your package.json)

Lessons in this unit:

0:	Introduction
1:	How to fix "cannot use import statement outside a module"
2:	How to fix "__dirname is not defined in ES module scope"
3:	How to fix the error "unexpected token "{". import call expects exactly one argument"
4:	How to enable ES Modules in Node.js
5:	▶︎ How to use .env files in Node.js with import syntax
6:	How to use import in Node.js
7:	Expose functionality from a Node file using exports