Environment variables

springboot-cli run optionally reads .env from the project root and passes those values to the Maven process that starts the application.

SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=local
DATABASE_URL="jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/catalog"
DATABASE_USER=app
DATABASE_PASSWORD=change-me

The parser accepts blank lines, # comments, optional export prefixes, and single- or double-quoted values. It does not expand references such as ${HOME}. Values from .env override variables with the same name already present in the shell environment for that run process.

Check required keys

Create .env.example with the keys your project expects, then create a local .env with your values:

# .env.example
SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=
DATABASE_URL=
DATABASE_USER=
DATABASE_PASSWORD=

springboot-cli env sync

env sync reports keys present in .env.example but absent from .env. It checks for key presence only; it does not copy values, create either file, or check whether a value is empty. A .env.example file is required. Keep secrets in .env and out of version control.