How to use environment variables in .env file in _quarto.yml file?

[jskherman]

Hi! May I ask on how one would go about using the values in a .env file?

I would like to avoid publishing some secrets/credentials on the public repo and using something like GitHub Actions since we publish using quarto publish netlify directly (convenient for images).

I've tried poring through the documentation (Guide or Reference) for some hint on how to do this such as {{< env EXAMPLE_VAR >}} but I can't seem to find any.

I currently make do with finding and replacing specific strings from the _quarto.yml file with a pre-render script and reversing the changes with a post-render script.

Any ideas on how to do this in a less scrappy/native to Quarto way? Thank you.

[cderv]

We have added some new feature in 1.2 currently in pre-release version for Quarto projects:

• Environment variables management: https://quarto.org/docs/projects/environment.html
• Project profiles: https://quarto.org/docs/projects/profiles.html

Using both of those options should be the way to go to manage local vs deployment environment.

[jskherman]

Thank you so much for the information. Sorry if this is redundant but after reading through these docs, I still cannot seem to figure out how to use an environment variable inside of the _quarto.yml file. I have already tried using an _environment and _environment.local file with the preview in the pre-release version but no luck here as well.

For example, how do I get the environment variable SECRET in an example .env or _environment.local like so:

SECRET=VeryImportantSecretNoOneMustKnow

and use it inside of _quarto.yml? Like so:

website:
    title: ${SECRET}

[cderv]

Oh I see.

We have a shortcodes available to read some environment variable inside your document: https://quarto.org/docs/authoring/variables.html#env

I don't think it is available to be used inside any YAML fields of _quarto.yml (mostly because they could be handle by Pandoc directly)

@dragonstyle do you know our status on this ?

However @jskherman for this specific usage

use it inside of _quarto.yml

I believe the Project profiles are better fit. You could have a project profile that you don't share, and that you are using when rendering in closed environment, to override the default title with your secret title

[jskherman]

I see, I'll have a look into the Project Profiles if I can make it work. Thanks!

[cderv]

please do share back you experience. The two features mentioned should be the solution to your use case, but maybe we missed something and it is not yet ideal.