How to use env variables with Laravel Envoy scripts

Tested on Laravel 9.3 and Laravel Envoy 2.8

I use Laravel Envoy in some projects (including in this open sourced blog) to deploy directly from the commandline. While some of these projects maybe should use ci-pipeline (and surely will) I also like the simplicity of Envoy from time to time.

Just commit locally, run your tests and deploy all in one go.

I recently was happy to notice, that you can even use all Laravel helper functions inside scripts – but sadly, the env() command was not working

// ...

// this outputs "HELLO WORLD" on the server, that's cool! 🙂
@task('deploy', ['on' => 'web'])
    echo "{{str('hello')->upper()}}";
@endtask

// this outputs nothing 😢
@task('deploy', ['on' => 'web'])
    echo "{{env('APP_URL')}}";
@endtask

I guess that is the case because Laravel Envoy is set to be more of a framework-agnostic SSH solution for PHP and the LoadEnvironmentVariables class is deeply wired into the kernel of a Laravel application.

Luckily, you can load the .env content in the @setup method like described in the docs of underlying library phpdotenv

@setup
    $dotenv = Dotenv\Dotenv::createImmutable(__DIR__);
    $dotenv->load();
@endsetup

// ...

You now are able to create a deployment script that uses variables from your .env file via the env() helper!

Keep in mind, that inside the @task ... @endtask block we have to use Blade-style, when defining the @servers we use pure PHP:

@setup
    $dotenv = Dotenv\Dotenv::createImmutable(__DIR__);
    $dotenv->load();
@endsetup

@servers(['web' => [env('DEPLOY_USER') . '@' . env('DEPLOY_HOST')]])

@task('deploy', ['on' => 'web'])
    cd {{ env('DEPLOY_LOCATION') }}
    git pull
    npm install
    npm run prod
    compsoser install --no-dev
    php artisan cache:clear
    php artisan config:clear
@endtask

We are now able to hide away either sensitive or irrelevant information and put it into our .env 🎉

Thanks to Amit who wrote an article about this that led my on the right track, but the solution was not completely working for me.

So long! Simon