This repo has the one line code to either convert .env file into a json file or a json file into env

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🔄 ENV ↔ JSON Conversion Guide

A clean, simple, and developer‑friendly guide for converting between .env files and JSON using shell commands. Perfect for teams, DevOps workflows, or API config management.

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📦 1. Install jq

jq is required for JSON → ENV conversion.

for more: https://jqlang.org/download/

Linux

sudo apt install jq

Mac

brew install jq

Windows (Chocolatey)

choco install jq

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🌱 2. Convert .env → JSON

Steps

1. Navigate to your .env file directory:

   cd /path/to/your/env

2. Ensure your .env contains valid key-value pairs.
3. Run the following command (unchanged from your original):

cat .env | grep -v '^#' | grep -v '^\s*$' | awk -F= '{gsub(/"/, "\\\"", $2); print "\"" $1 "\": \"" $2 "\","}' | sed '$ s/,$//' | awk 'BEGIN {print "{"} {print} END {print "}"}'

IMPORTANT⚠️: This command doesnot works directly in windows, you have to be in Git Bash, WSL, etc. terminal

If you are doing this in Powershell, here is the seperate command. Rest is same !

(Get-Content .env |
    Where-Object { $_ -notmatch '^\s*$' -and $_ -notmatch '^\s*#' } |
    ForEach-Object {
        $parts = $_ -split '=', 2
        '"' + $parts[0] + '": "' + ($parts[1].Replace('"', '\"')) + '"'
    }) -join ",`n" | 
    ForEach-Object { "{`n$_`n}" }

Output

The resulting JSON will be printed directly in the terminal.

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🛠️ 3. Convert JSON → .env

Steps

1. Save your JSON as a file (e.g., input.json).
2. Navigate to the file directory:

   cd /path/to/input.json

3. Run the conversion command:

jq -r 'to_entries[] | "\(.key)=\(.value)"' input.json

IMPORTANT⚠️: This command doesnot works directly in windows, you have to be in Git Bash, WSL, etc. terminal

If you are doing this in Powershell, here is the seperate command. Rest is same !

(Get-Content input.json | ConvertFrom-Json).psobject.Properties |
    ForEach-Object { "$($_.Name)=$($_.Value)" }

Output

The .env formatted variables will be displayed directly in your terminal.

Copy & paste the output into your .env file if needed.

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✨ You're All Set!

Easily switch between .env and JSON formats without installing heavy tools or writing scripts. Ideal for automation, CI/CD pipelines, or configuration cleanup.

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Happy hacking! 🚀 Biraluu