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Dotenv Mask Editor: No more embarrassing screen leaks of your .env

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Hi HN,I built this because I often work in coworking spaces or do screen sharing, and I've always had this fear of accidentally flashing my .env file with production secrets to the whole room (or recording).It’s a simple VS Code extension that opens .env files in a custom grid editor. It automatically masks any value longer than 6 characters so I can safely open the file to check keys without exposing the actual secrets.It runs 100% locally with zero dependencies (I know how sensitive these files are). It just reads the file, renders the grid, and saves it back as standard text.It's open source (MIT) and I'd love any feedback on the masking logic or other features that would make it safer to use.Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=xinbenlv... Github https://github.com/xinbenlv/dotenv-mask-editor

HN · launched Jan 22, 2026 · 28 upvotes (top 30%) · 0 views

Niche: developer data and local file viewers · 49 launches, 9 in the last 7 days · Explore this niche →

Category and tags
  • Horizontal
  • Dev tools
  • Developer
  • Not AI
  • Hobby / open-source project

Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗

More like this: all 49 launches in developer data and local file viewers →

Could you build this?

Yes It is a standard VS Code extension using the Custom Editor API to display key-value pairs from .env files in a masked UI grid.

Discussion

20 comments analyzed.

Competitors mentioned: direnv, Vault, AWS SSM, pass (password manager), Postman

Concerns raised: Production secrets shouldn't be in .env files at all, Masking is a band-aid, not proper secret management, Doesn't prevent npm packages from reading env files, Scope too narrow - problem extends beyond .env to configs, databases, terminals, browser tabs, Better to use local dev stack with dummy credentials instead

Feature requests: Support masking beyond .env files (YAML, JSON, TOML, database GUIs, API tools, terminals), Detect secrets across multiple applications during screen sharing, More sophisticated secret detection beyond pattern matching

Competitors

Other products that read as similar to this one : 96 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.

Attention rank: #38 of 97 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).

Launched 77 days after the earliest competitor.

  • I just fixed .env once and for all · hn · 2025-11-23 · 8 upvotes · similarity 0.53
  • DotenvScan · ph · 2026-10-17 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.52
  • better-env · hn · 2025-11-23 · 6 upvotes · similarity 0.49
  • KeyEnv · hn · 2026-01-18 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.46
  • envdirx · ph · 2026-10-07 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.44
  • enveil · hn · 2026-02-24 · 201 upvotes · similarity 0.42
  • SecretEnv · hn · 2026-05-05 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.42
  • SnapEnv · ph · 2026-09-14 · 3 upvotes · similarity 0.40

Related data

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