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hansott merged 2 commits into from
Dec 9, 2025
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Add note about loading env variables in ESM mode #847

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Add note about loading env variables in ESM mode
hansott Dec 9, 2025
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When Zen starts
hansott Dec 9, 2025
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15 changes: 14 additions & 1 deletion docs/esm.md
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Expand Up @@ -15,9 +15,22 @@ Alternatively, you can set the `NODE_OPTIONS` environment variable to include th
export NODE_OPTIONS='-r @aikidosec/firewall/instrument'
```

> [!IMPORTANT]
> [!IMPORTANT]
> Please also check the documentation on how to integrate Zen with your used web framework.

## Loading environment variables

When using `--require`/`-r` to preload the Zen firewall, the instrumentation hook runs before your application code. This means environment variables loaded by packages like `dotenv` will not be available when Zen starts.

To ensure `AIKIDO_TOKEN` and other environment variables are available during instrumentation, use Node.js's native `--env-file` flag:

```sh
node --env-file=.env -r @aikidosec/firewall/instrument your-app.js
```

> [!NOTE]
> The `--env-file` flag cannot be used in `NODE_OPTIONS`.

## Known issues

- Zen can not protect ESM sub-dependencies of an ESM package. For example if an ESM package `foo` imports a sub-dependency `bar` that is also an ESM package, Zen will not be able to protect the code in `bar`. This is because the V8 engine does not allow Node.js to observe the evaluation of inner ESM packages (yet). Open issue: [Adding an evaluation hook for v8::Module](https://issues.chromium.org/u/1/issues/384413088). See a full example below.
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