Configuration Way

Source: hooks/ways/softwaredev/environment/config/config.md

Frontmatter

Field	Value
description	configuration, environment variables, dotenv files, connection settings
vocabulary	dotenv environment configuration envvar config.json config.yaml connection port host url setting variable string
files	.env|config.(json|yaml|yml|toml)$
refire	0.15
scope	agent, subagent

Hierarchy

1. Environment variables (highest priority)
2. Config files
3. Default values (lowest priority)

When Creating Config

• Fail fast if required config is missing — check at startup, not at first use
• Provide sensible defaults where safe (timeouts, ports, log levels)
• For secrets handling: see Security Way

.env Files

When creating a .env file: 1. Also create .env.example with placeholder values and comments 2. Verify .env is in .gitignore

# .env.example
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/mydb
API_KEY=your-api-key-here
LOG_LEVEL=info  # debug, info, warn, error

Validation Pattern

// Check required config at startup
const required = ['DATABASE_URL', 'API_KEY'];
for (const key of required) {
  if (!process.env[key]) throw new Error(`Missing required env var: ${key}`);
}

See Also

• code/security/secrets(softwaredev) — secrets belong in config, not code