Environment setup is documented
Why it matters
Undocumented environment variables force every new developer to grep the codebase for process.env.* references and guess at formats, values, and provisioning steps. Missing variables cause silent failures at runtime (databases not connecting, API calls 401ing, features toggling off) that waste hours of debugging. For production deploys, an incomplete .env.example is a common cause of broken releases when a required variable is forgotten in the deploy pipeline's secrets store.
Severity rationale
High because undocumented env vars block every new contributor and cause silent production failures.
Remediation
Create .env.example at the project root, list every variable referenced in code (process.env.*, import.meta.env.*), and comment each with its purpose and where to obtain the value. Reference the file from the README setup section. Example:
# PostgreSQL connection string
# Format: postgresql://user:password@host:port/database
DATABASE_URL=
# OpenAI API key from https://platform.openai.com/api-keys
OPENAI_API_KEY=
DetectionPro
The detection method for this pattern is part of AuditBuffet Pro.
The full method (what to look for, pass and fail conditions, and how results get reported) ships inside the Developer Documentation Audit. The pattern definition, severity rationale, and remediation remain openly licensed under CC-BY-4.0.
Taxons
History
- 2026-04-18·v1.0.0·Initial import from developer-documentation·automated