What every dev should know about using Environment Variables

Environment variables are crucial for altering program functionality without needing to rebuild or redeploy, serving as key tools in managing application runtime behavior across various environments, such as development and production. In Expo React Native apps, they allow developers to use the same codebase for different environments by merely changing the values of these variables. Although environment variables are versatile, they pose security risks when used in client-side code, as they can be accessed in plain text, making it unsafe to store secrets like API keys and passwords. However, server-side code can securely handle secrets through environment variables since the source code is hidden. Expo's EAS (Expo Application Services) provides an integrated solution for managing environment variables, offering different levels of visibility—plain text, sensitive, and secret. Expo projects require environment variables used in code to be prefixed with EXPO_PUBLIC_ to ensure clarity that these should not contain sensitive information. The system supports storing these variables in .env files, eas.json, and through EAS CLI, providing flexibility in how they are managed and deployed.

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