handle custom .env with build & start command in 16.0.3 Page Router

[dhavalveera]

Summary

how to setup multiple .env in Nextjs? but I will have custom name, and I want to adopt the relevant one...

like for qa build I want to use .env.qa, for uat build I want to .env.uat how to achieve it?

as in the title it's being said I'm Nextjs v16.0.3 Page Router, and I am unable to find a way to use .env.qa when I start npm run dev:qa as I've tried dotenv (as said in Discord help-forum -> https://discord.com/channels/752553802359505017/1438836216136077354) but nothing seems working!..

anyone please help me to fix it, as it's one of my Client's Project, and we need this 2 env's for Testing Envrionemnts.

Additional information

Operating System:
  Platform: win32
  Arch: x64
  Version: Windows 11 Home Single Language
  Available memory (MB): 16134
  Available CPU cores: 8
Binaries:
  Node: 22.19.0
  npm: 10.9.3
  Yarn: 1.22.22
  pnpm: N/A
Relevant Packages:
  next: 16.0.3 // Latest available version is detected (16.0.3).
  eslint-config-next: N/A
  react: 18.3.1
  react-dom: 18.3.1
  typescript: 5.9.3
Next.js Config:
  output: N/A

Example

No response

[icyJoseph]

I don't think there's a way to do .env.qa, or custom like that, because the loading uses NODE_ENV ~ maybe you can load them manually? @next/env uses dotenv-expand under the hood.

[dhavalveera]

I don't think there's a way to do .env.qa, or custom like that, because the loading uses NODE_ENV ~ maybe you can load them manually? @next/env uses dotenv-expand under the hood.

Hello @icyJoseph , can you please help me with how to use @next/env to load custom env?

or maybe if I want to use .env.test for QA Testing Purpose?

[icyJoseph]

Not @next/env directly, but dotenv-expand - I haven't used it myself as said before, but I reckon you could try in next.config.js - load a different env var there and see if values are loaded property. It should just work locally both in dev and build+start

[dhavalveera]

I tried dotenv, dotenv-cli, cross-env nothing seems working, that's why I am posting here to find solution what other possibilities to handle custom .env.*

[dhavalveera]

or @icyJoseph -- how to use .env.test for QA Testing purpose? like development, test & production is the only 3 options are supported by the Nextjs NODE_ENV then how to use that?