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Quick Start

Get your environment variables flowing in under 5 minutes.

Prerequisites​

  • A terminal with curl installed
  • 5 minutes of time

What you'll accomplish​

  • Install the EnvCat CLI
  • Sign up for an account
  • Create your first bundle
  • Load environment variables into your shell

Steps​

1. Install the CLI​

macOS / Linux (recommended):

curl -fsSL https://env.cat/cli/install.sh | sh

Verify installation:

envcat --version

Manual downloads: Visit CLI Reference → Installation for platform-specific binaries.

2. Sign up​

Visit env.cat and create an account.

What happens:

  • Your account is created
  • A personal organization is set up automatically
  • You're ready to create bundles

3. Create your first bundle​

In the EnvCat dashboard:

  1. Click Bundles → Create Bundle
  2. Name it dev/example
  3. Add description: "My first bundle"
  4. Click Create

4. Add keys to your bundle​

  1. Click Keys → Create Key
  2. Add your first key:
    • Name: DATABASE_URL
    • Value: postgres://localhost:5432/mydb
    • Is Secret: ✓ (checked)
  3. Click Create
  4. Go back to Bundles → dev/example
  5. Click Attach Key → Select DATABASE_URL

5. Request and load variables​

Open a terminal and run:

eval "$(envcat get --bundle dev/example)"

What happens:

  1. The CLI creates an ephemeral keypair
  2. A unique approval URL appears (with QR code)
  3. You open the URL in your browser
  4. You select which keys to approve
  5. Click Approve
  6. The CLI receives encrypted variables
  7. Variables are loaded into your shell

Expected output:

🔐 Open this URL in your browser: https://env.cat/approve/abc123
⏳ Waiting for approval (expires in 4:32)
✓ Approved! Loading 1 variable(s) into shell

Verify it worked:

echo $DATABASE_URL
# postgres://localhost:5432/mydb

Alternative: Write to .env file​

If you prefer .env files:

envcat get --bundle dev/example --write .env

Then load it:

set -a && source .env && set +a

Troubleshooting​

CLI not found: Add /usr/local/bin to your PATH or download manually from CLI downloads.

Request expired: Approval URLs expire after 5 minutes. Run envcat get again.

No variables received: Make sure you selected keys during the approval step.

Next Steps​

Security Note​

EnvCat uses end-to-end encryption for the approval flow. The server never sees your plaintext secrets during approval—only your CLI can decrypt them.

Running EnvCat yourself? See our GitHub repository for self-hosting instructions.