Skip to main content

Configure environment variables

Fusion automatically loads environment variables from a .env file in your current working directory (the folder you cd into and run dbt commands from in your terminal). This helps you manage credentials and settings without hardcoding them in your profiles.yml or exposing them in your shell history.

Using a .env file​

  1. Create a .env file in your current working directory (typically at the root of your dbt project):

    DBT_MY_DATABASE=my_database
    DBT_MY_SCHEMA=my_schema
    DBT_SECRET_KEY=my_secret_value

  2. Reference these variables in your profiles.yml using the env_var Jinja function:

    my_profile:
      target: dev
      outputs:
        dev:
          type: snowflake
          account: my_account
          database: "{{ env_var('DBT_MY_DATABASE') }}"
          schema: "{{ env_var('DBT_MY_SCHEMA') }}"

  3. Run dbt commands normally. Fusion will automatically load the variables from the .env file. For example, running dbtf debug will show your connection using the values from .env:

    dbtf debug
    ...
    Debugging connection:
    "authenticator": "my_authenticator",
    "account": "my_account",
    "user": "my_user",
    "database": "my_database",        # Loaded from DBT_MY_DATABASE in .env
    "schema": "my_schema",            # Loaded from DBT_MY_SCHEMA in .env
note

We recommend placing your .env file in the project root and running dbt commands from that location because the file is loaded only from your current working directory. It doesn't support the --project-dir flag or environment variable, and dbt won't search your project root if you're running commands from a different directory location.

Precedence order​

When the same environment variable is defined in multiple places, Fusion uses the following precedence order (highest to lowest):

  1. Shell environment — Variables set directly in your shell (for example, export DBT_MY_VAR=value)
  2. .env file — Variables defined in the .env file in your current working directory

This means environment variables set in your shell always override values from the .env file.

tip

Add .env to your .gitignore file to prevent sensitive credentials from being committed to version control. The dbtf init command automatically includes .env in the generated .gitignore file.

For more details on managing environment variables locally, refer to Configure your local environment.

Was this page helpful?

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

0
Loading