Environment variables allow you to store and manage configuration settings that your application needs at runtime. These variables are accessible to your application’s processes as standard environment variables, enabling you to:

  • Configure your application for different environments (development, staging, production)
  • Store configuration settings separate from your code
  • Manage API keys and other configuration values

Environment Variable secrets you create in the Gitpod dashboard become accessible as system environment variables in your environment. The name you provide for the secret becomes the environment variable name.

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When to use Environment Variables

Security Consideration: For sensitive data (passwords, API tokens, private keys), we strongly recommend using files instead of environment variables.

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Comparison: Files vs Environment Variables

FilesEnvironment Variables
Support complex structures (JSON, certificates)Limited to simple string values
Not visible in process listingsVisible via ps auxe commands
Not included in crash reports or logsOften dumped in logs and error reports
Explicitly used by processesAutomatically inherited by child processes

Use environment variables for non-sensitive configuration like feature flags, API endpoints, or application modes.

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Creating an Environment Variable Secret

To create an Environment Variable Secret:

  1. Navigate to Project > Secrets > New Secret in your Gitpod dashboard
  2. Select Environment Variable from the type dropdown
  3. Configure the following fields:
    • Type of secret: “Environment Variable” (cannot be changed after creation)
    • Name: A unique identifier (3-127 characters, only alphanumeric characters, underscores, and hyphens)
    • Value: The value to be stored (maximum size: 4KB)

Secrets Create Environment

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Accessing Environment Variables

Once created, environment variables are automatically available in your Gitpod environment as system environment variables by the name you provided. No special code is required to access them.

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Updating an Environment Variable Secret

You can update the value of an environment variable at any time:

  1. Navigate to the Project > Secrets page in your Gitpod dashboard
  2. Click the Edit button
  3. Update the value
  4. Click Save

Secrets Update Environment

When you update a secret value:

  • New environments will receive the updated value
  • Existing running environments will continue to use the old value until they are restarted
  • To apply updates to running environments, you must restart them

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Deleting an Environment Variable Secret

To delete an environment variable:

  1. Navigate to the Project > Secrets page in your Gitpod dashboard
  2. Click the Delete button
  3. Confirm the deletion

After deletion:

  • New environments launched from the project will no longer have access to the secret
  • Existing environments that already have the secret will retain it until those environments themselves are deleted

Note: When a project is deleted, all its secrets are automatically deleted as well.

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