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Configure Environment Variables

This tutorial will show you how to configure sensitive environment variables in Defang.

Pre-requisites​

Step 1 - Go to your compose.yaml file​

info

If you are using Pulumi instead of Compose files to define your services, please see Using Config With Pulumi instead.

In your Compose file, you can define a sensitive config variable for your service by leaving it as a blank or null value. Defang will recognize it as a sensitive value.

In the example below, let's define API_KEY as an environment variable.

services:
  service1:
    image: image1:latest
    environment:
      - API_KEY

The type of notation shown above is called list notation. Alternatively, you can use map notation, which is also acceptable:

services:
  service1:
    image: image1:latest
    environment:
      API_KEY:

Step 2 - Set the actual value in the Defang CLI​

To store the actual (sensitive) value of the variable, open up a terminal and type the command:

defang config set API_KEY=actualvalue

Remember to replace API_KEY with your variable name and actualvalue with your actual value.

tip

You can view all the config variables you are storing in Defang by doing: defang config ls.

Editing a config value​

To edit a value, you can run the command again with an updated value to overwrite the current value:

defang config set API_KEY=newvalue

Removing a config value​

To remove a value, run the command:

defang config rm API_KEY
tip

Remember to update your Compose file if you remove an environment variable.

Step 3 - Deploy​

defang compose up

For a deeper discussion on how configuration works in Defang, see our Configuration docs.