Environment Variables (CLI)

The vercel env command and the difference between vercel env pull and vercel pull.

The vercel env command manages a project's environment variables across the Production, Preview, and Development targets.

`vercel env ls`

Lists configured variables — names and targets, never the values.

vercel env ls
vercel env ls production    # only a specific target

`vercel env add`

Adds a variable. You're prompted for the value and target if not supplied.

vercel env add API_KEY production

# Pipe a value from a file (avoids shell history exposure)
vercel env add API_KEY production < ./secret.txt

You can't combine development with production or preview in one add — add development variables in a separate command. If your team enforces sensitive-variable policy, development adds may be disallowed and production/preview writes treated as sensitive.

`vercel env rm`

vercel env rm API_KEY production

`vercel env pull`

Exports development variables to a local file (default .env.local) for framework dev servers like next dev or vite.

vercel env pull
vercel env pull .env.local
vercel env pull --environment=preview .env.preview

`vercel env pull` vs `vercel pull`

This is the common point of confusion:

Command	Writes to	Use when you run
`vercel env pull`	a `.env` file	your framework's dev server (`next dev`, `vite`, …)
`vercel pull`	the `.vercel/` directory	`vercel dev` or `vercel build`

vercel dev and vercel build read project settings and variables from .vercel/, which vercel pull provides. Framework dev commands read .env files, which vercel env pull provides.

Running a command with the variables

vercel env pull .env.local
# then start your dev server, which reads .env.local
npm run dev

Environment Variables (CLI)

vercel env ls

vercel env add

vercel env rm

vercel env pull

vercel env pull vs vercel pull