Environment variables from .env files are not accessible

[dmarcucci]

Describe the Bug

Regardless of whether I use .env, .env.local, or .env.development.local, I am unable to utilize any environment variables in my email template when using email dev.

I've tried with both a regular environment variable and a "public" one (i.e., prefixed with NEXT_PUBLIC_). In both cases, the value of the variable when accessing via the template was undefined.

As a workaround, I was able to manually copy the file to the .react-email folder before running email dev. When doing this, I was able to access the variables as expected.

Which package is affected (leave empty if unsure)

No response

Link to the code that reproduces this issue

https://gist.github.com/dmarcucci/2401aaf65e83daa76ed0c75476df7abc

To Reproduce

1. Add an environment variable to your .env file (either .env, .env.local, or .env.development.local).
2. Create an email template where the aforementioned environment variable is referenced in some way (e.g., in a <Text> element).
3. Run email dev and navigate to the applicable email template in the app UI to preview the rendered template.

Expected Behavior

The value of the environment variable (as set in the applicable environment variables file) should be visible.

What's your node version? (if relevant)

No response

[heggland]

can confirm the workaround works.

moving .env from root folder into .react-email

[EduardoFazolo]

I investigated a bit and I think I understand why this happens. Since react-email package is the one that runs the app, the process.env reads from the .react-email directory, hence why your workaround works. I've also logged the directory with process.cwd() and I can confirm that is indeed what happens, even logging it through the files inside the emails folder.

I've been trying to wrap my head around on how to fix this issue, and there's an easy solution which is to use the dotenv library and then use the .config to set the path to the parent folder, which is hacky and non intuitive.

The other option is to think of a way for the react-email package to point to the .env of the parent, somehow.

Let me know what would be best and I can get to work on a PR to fix this issue.

[dmarcucci]

Not sure who your reply is addressed to, but I don't have a preference at this point since I'm now running a script before running locally in order to set up some ngrok stuff and my workaround is simply baked into that script. But I imagine any solution where the root environment variable files would just work would suffice.

[LavransBjerkestrand]

In package.json

"email:dev": "cp .env .react-email/ && email dev"

Updated for react-email 2.0:

"email:dev": "cp .env ./node_modules/react-email/ && email dev"

Updated for react-email 3.0, thanks to #668 (comment)

"email:dev": "cp .env ./node_modules/react-email/dist/preview && email dev"

[pkit]

It's not a "workaround" it's just a hack for email dev, what about email export? It doesn't create .react-email folder.

[pkit]

Created a patch to solve the problem for both dev and export (for 1.9.5):

diff --git a/node_modules/react-email/dist/source/commands/dev.js b/node_modules/react-email/dist/source/commands/dev.js
index c0f050a..6e63dd9 100644
--- a/node_modules/react-email/dist/source/commands/dev.js
+++ b/node_modules/react-email/dist/source/commands/dev.js
@@ -8,16 +8,20 @@ const utils_1 = require("../utils");
 const fs_1 = __importDefault(require("fs"));
 const shelljs_1 = __importDefault(require("shelljs"));
 const run_server_1 = require("../utils/run-server");
+const _env = require("dotenv").config();
+const _env_file = Object.entries(_env.parsed).map(([k, v]) => `${k}="${v}"`).join("\n") + "\n";
 const dev = async ({ dir, port, skipInstall }) => {
     try {
         if (!fs_1.default.existsSync(dir)) {
             throw new Error(`Missing ${dir} folder`);
         }
         if (fs_1.default.existsSync(utils_1.REACT_EMAIL_ROOT)) {
+            fs_1.default.writeFileSync(utils_1.REACT_EMAIL_ROOT + "/.env", _env_file);
             await (0, run_server_1.setupServer)('dev', dir, port, skipInstall);
             return;
         }
         await (0, utils_1.downloadClient)();
+        fs_1.default.writeFileSync(utils_1.REACT_EMAIL_ROOT + "/.env", _env_file);
         await (0, run_server_1.setupServer)('dev', dir, port, skipInstall);
     }
     catch (error) {
diff --git a/node_modules/react-email/dist/source/commands/export.js b/node_modules/react-email/dist/source/commands/export.js
index e3b8200..5e99456 100644
--- a/node_modules/react-email/dist/source/commands/export.js
+++ b/node_modules/react-email/dist/source/commands/export.js
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@ const path_1 = __importDefault(require("path"));
 const shelljs_1 = __importDefault(require("shelljs"));
 const fs_2 = __importDefault(require("fs"));
 const close_ora_on_sigint_1 = require("../utils/close-ora-on-sigint");
+const _process_env = {};
+require('dotenv').config({ processEnv: _process_env });
 /*
   This first builds all the templates using esbuild and then puts the output in the `.js`
   files. Then these `.js` files are imported dynamically and rendered to `.html` files
@@ -48,12 +50,17 @@ const exportTemplates = async (outDir, srcDir, options) => {
     const spinner = (0, ora_1.default)('Preparing files...\n').start();
     (0, close_ora_on_sigint_1.closeOraOnSIGNIT)(spinner);
     const allTemplates = glob_1.glob.sync((0, normalize_path_1.default)(path_1.default.join(srcDir, '*.{tsx,jsx}')));
+    const define = {};
+    for (const k in _process_env) {
+        define[`process.env.${k}`] = JSON.stringify(_process_env[k]);
+    }
     esbuild_1.default.buildSync({
         bundle: true,
         entryPoints: allTemplates,
         platform: 'node',
         write: true,
         outdir: outDir,
+        define,
     });
     spinner.succeed();
     const allBuiltTemplates = glob_1.glob.sync((0, normalize_path_1.default)(`${outDir}/*.js

Place the patch into patches/react-email+1.9.5.patch in your project. Make sure that dotenv package is installed. Apply the patch using the marvelous patch-package npm module.

[piotrkulpinski]

Would also love this to be fixed 🙏 I'm using React Email in a project when I've set up T3 Env and I can't even start the dev server due to the missing env variables:

❌ Invalid environment variables: {
  ...
}

[jinsley8]

Would also love this to be fixed 🙏 I'm using React Email in a project when I've set up T3 Env and I can't even start the dev server due to the missing env variables:

❌ Invalid environment variables: {
  ...
}

Is this from using t3-env within the /emails files?

Just use process.env in those files and follow this to copy the .env file to the generated react-email previewer: https://github.com/resend/react-email/issues/668#issuecomment-1890988245

[viczam]

Copying the environment variables to ./node_modules/react-email/ doesn't seem to work with "react-email": "3.0.1". Any idea on how to handle it now?

[viczam]

it seems to work if you copy the .env file to ./node_modules/react-email/dist/preview/. I wonder if there's a better way to do it.

[nonybrighto]

How can we access environment variables for "email export"?