/diff-env

/diff-env - Diff Environment Variables

Compare environment variables between two environments.

Steps

1. Ask the user for the two environments to compare (e.g., dev vs staging) 2. Load environment variables from both sources (.env files, vault, cloud config) 3. Create a unified list of all variables across both environments 4. Categorize each variable: present in both, only in source, only in target 5. For variables present in both, compare values (without showing secret values) 6. Identify value mismatches: different URLs, ports, feature flags 7. Flag variables that are empty or have placeholder values 8. Check for variables that should differ (DATABASE_URL) vs should match (API_VERSION) 9. Generate a diff table: variable name, source value, target value, status 10. Highlight security concerns: secrets in plaintext, default credentials 11. Suggest which missing variables need to be added to which environment 12. Save the diff report for reference

Rules

• Never display the actual values of secret variables (mask with ****)
• Identify secrets by naming patterns: *_KEY, *_SECRET, *_PASSWORD, *_TOKEN
• Show whether values match without revealing the actual values for sensitive vars
• Flag environment-specific variables that accidentally have the same value
• Detect URL differences that indicate wrong environment configuration
• Report variables that exist in code but are missing from both environments
• Include the diff timestamp and environments compared in the report