Environment Variables in Zerops for Laravel

Zerops manages environment variables without requiring manual .env files, enabling application deployment across different environments (development, staging, production) while keeping environment-specific configurations isolated from your code.

Read more about how environment variables work in Zerops.

Laravel Environment Variables in Zerops

Secret Variables

Some Laravel variables contain sensitive information that should never be exposed as plain text. Manage these using Zerops Secret Variables by:

• Creating and managing them through the Zerops GUI
• Defining them in a configuration file when importing a project or service (allows automatic generation)

When importing a project or service, you can define secret variables directly in your import configuration:

services:
  - hostname: app
    type: php-nginx@8.4
    envSecrets:
      APP_KEY: your-secret-key

Tip

Secret variables can be updated at any time without requiring application redeployment.

Automatic Generation During Import

If you prefer to have certain secrets generated automatically, you can use the yaml preprocessor. This is optional and only available during import:

#yamlPreprocessor=on
services:
  - hostname: app
    type: php-nginx@8.4
    envSecrets:
      APP_KEY: <@generateRandomString(<32>)>

Runtime Variables

These variables, defined in zerops.yaml, are typically environment-specific but not sensitive.

Note

Changes to runtime variables require application redeployment to take effect.

Below is a complete working example of envVariables in zerops.yaml (sourced from Laravel Jetstream recipe):

zerops.yaml

run:
  envVariables:
    APP_LOCALE: en
    APP_FAKER_LOCALE: en_US
    APP_FALLBACK_LOCALE: en
    APP_MAINTENANCE_DRIVER: file
    APP_MAINTENANCE_STORE: database
    APP_TIMEZONE: UTC
    APP_URL: ${zeropsSubdomain}          # References generated variable
    ASSET_URL: ${APP_URL}
    VITE_APP_NAME: ${APP_NAME}

    # PostgreSQL connection settings
    DB_CONNECTION: pgsql
    DB_DATABASE: db
    DB_HOST: db                          # References database service hostname
    DB_PASSWORD: ${db_password}          # References database password
    DB_PORT: 5432
    DB_USERNAME: ${db_user}              # References database user

    # S3-compatible object storage settings
    AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: ${storage_accessKeyId}
    AWS_REGION: us-east-1
    AWS_BUCKET: ${storage_bucketName}    # References bucket name of service 'storage'
    AWS_ENDPOINT: ${storage_apiUrl}
    AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: ${storage_secretAccessKey} # Safely references secret
    AWS_URL: ${storage_apiUrl}/${storage_bucketName}
    AWS_USE_PATH_STYLE_ENDPOINT: true
    FILESYSTEM_DISK: s3

    # Logging Configuration
    LOG_CHANNEL: syslog
    LOG_LEVEL: debug
    LOG_STACK: single

    # SMTP settings for email delivery
    MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS: hello@example.com
    MAIL_FROM_NAME: ZeropsLaravel
    MAIL_HOST: mailpit                   # References mail service hostname
    MAIL_MAILER: smtp
    MAIL_PORT: 1025

    # Redis-based caching and session management
    BROADCAST_CONNECTION: redis
    CACHE_PREFIX: cache
    CACHE_STORE: redis
    QUEUE_CONNECTION: redis
    REDIS_CLIENT: phpredis
    REDIS_HOST: valkey                    # References Redis service hostname
    REDIS_PORT: 6379
    SESSION_DRIVER: redis
    SESSION_ENCRYPT: false
    SESSION_LIFETIME: 120
    SESSION_PATH: /

    # Security Configuration
    BCRYPT_ROUNDS: 12
    TRUSTED_PROXIES: "*"

Let's look at variable configurations that may need additional context and where to find detailed implementation guides:

Application Configuration

Core application settings that define your Laravel app's identity, URL structure, and environment parameters. Reference environment variables from the same service.

APP_URL: ${zeropsSubdomain} # zeropsSubdomain variable is system generated
ASSET_URL: ${APP_URL}
VITE_APP_NAME: ${APP_NAME} # APP_NAME variable was created during import (envSecrets)

Database Configuration

Essential database connection parameters that securely reference your PostgreSQL service db by hostname and its variables - password and user.

It is safe to store DB_PASSWORD in envVariables by reference as it does not contain the sensitive value itself.

DB_HOST: db
DB_PASSWORD: ${db_password}
DB_USERNAME: ${db_user}

Read more about database management for Laravel in Zerops.

Storage Configuration

S3-compatible object storage settings that enable efficient file handling and asset management in your Laravel application. Reference variables of Object storage service called storage.

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: ${storage_accessKeyId}
AWS_REGION: us-east-1
AWS_BUCKET: ${storage_bucketName}
AWS_ENDPOINT: ${storage_apiUrl}
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: ${storage_secretAccessKey}
AWS_URL: ${storage_apiUrl}/${storage_bucketName}
AWS_USE_PATH_STYLE_ENDPOINT: true
FILESYSTEM_DISK: s3

Read more about object storage in Zerops.

Logging Configuration

System monitoring and debugging configuration that determines how your application tracks events and errors. Use syslog channel to access logs from Zerops Dashboard.

LOG_CHANNEL: syslog

Learn how to properly configure logging for Laravel in Zerops.

Mail Configuration

SMTP server settings that enable your application to send emails through a dedicated mail service. Reference service mailpit by hostname.

MAIL_HOST: mailpit

Learn how to properly configure SMTP for Laravel in Zerops.

Cache and Session

Redis-based configuration for handling application caching, queues, and session management to optimize performance. Reference service valkey by hostname.

REDIS_HOST: valkey

Learn how to properly configure cache, queue & session management for Laravel in Zerops.

Tip

For automatic execution with each deploy, add these commands to the initCommands section of your zerops.yaml file.

zerops.yaml

initCommands:
  - php artisan view:cache
  - php artisan config:cache
  - php artisan route:cache