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vers env manages environment variables that Vers injects into new VMs at boot. The variables are written to /etc/environment, so they’re available to SSH sessions and anything launched via vers execute.
vers env only affects newly-created VMs. Existing VMs keep the environment they were booted with.

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Synopsis

vers env list                              # Show all configured variables
vers env list --format json                # Machine-readable
vers env set KEY VALUE                     # Set (or update) a variable
vers env delete KEY                        # Remove a variable

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Subcommands

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vers env list

List all environment variables configured for your account.
OptionDescription
--format jsonMachine-readable output
Aliases: ls. 
vers env list
vers env list --format json | jq '.[].key'

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vers env set

Set an environment variable. 
vers env set KEY VALUE
Constraints
  • KEY must be a valid shell identifier: letters, digits, underscores; cannot start with a digit.
  • KEY is at most 256 characters.
  • VALUE is at most 8192 characters.
Examples: 
vers env set DATABASE_URL postgres://localhost/mydb
vers env set API_KEY secret123
vers env set DEBUG true

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vers env delete

Remove an environment variable. The key is no longer injected into new VMs; existing VMs are unaffected. Aliases: del, rm, remove. 
vers env delete DATABASE_URL
vers env delete API_KEY

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How it works

1

Stored per account

Variables live on your Vers account, not on any single VM.
2

Injected at VM boot

When a new VM is provisioned (vers run, vers branch, vers run-commit, vers build), the orchestrator writes every variable to /etc/environment before handing the VM over.
3

Available to sessions and exec

Login shells, SSH sessions (vers connect), and commands run via vers execute all see the variables.

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Use cases

  • Secrets: API keys, database URLs, webhook tokens — available to every VM without leaking into your Dockerfile or vers.toml.
  • Feature flags: DEBUG=true, FEATURE_X=on.
  • Per-account defaults: any variable you want every VM you create to inherit.
For secrets you want scoped to a single commit rather than your whole account, bake them into a commit with vers build + ENV or write to /etc/environment in a RUN step.

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Common Patterns

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Bulk-load from a local .env file

while IFS='=' read -r key value; do
  [ -n "$key" ] && [ "${key#\#}" = "$key" ] && vers env set "$key" "$value"
done < .env

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Clear every variable

vers env list --format json | jq -r '.[].key' | xargs -n1 vers env delete

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Verify injection on a fresh VM

VM=$(vers run --wait --format json | jq -r .root_vm_id)
vers execute "$VM" -- cat /etc/environment

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See also

  • vers build — bake environment into a specific commit via ENV
  • vers execute — commands inherit /etc/environment
  • vers connect — SSH sessions inherit /etc/environment