# Environment Variables
Bedrock tries to separate config from code as much as possible and environment variables are used to achieve this. The benefit is there's a single place (.env
) to keep settings like database or other 3rd party credentials that aren't committed to your repository.
PHP dotenv (opens new window) is used to load the .env
file. All variables are then available in your app by the built-in getenv
, $_SERVER
, or $_ENV
methods.
However, we use the env (opens new window) library and its env
function which handles simple type coercion (such as converting the string 'True'
to the boolean true
). We recommend you use env
as well for reading environment variables.
Currently, the following env vars are required:
WP_HOME
WP_SITEURL
The following vars are required if DATABASE_URL
is not set:
DB_USER
DB_NAME
DB_PASSWORD
Note
There is also the DATABASE_URL
which is optional.
# WP_ENV
Although it isn't required (if not defined elsewhere, Bedrock will default to production
), WP_ENV
is used by several pieces of the Roots stack, as well as software outside of it, to modify behavior based on environment. There are three values you can set for WP_ENV
that Bedrock will understand:
production
staging
development
Make sure that these are set correctly in your different environments.