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docs: clarify .env.example is not auto-loaded#2

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lilabrooks merged 1 commit into
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docs/env-example-clarify
Jul 18, 2026
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docs: clarify .env.example is not auto-loaded#2
lilabrooks merged 1 commit into
mainfrom
docs/env-example-clarify

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What

Rewrites the .env.example header to state that nothing loads .env automatically — the settings layer reads os.environ directly, and there's no dotenv dependency (by design, to keep zero runtime dependencies). Shows how to export or source the vars instead (set -a; . ./.env; set +a).

Why

The old header said "Copy to .env for local use", which invites a silent failure: a user copies the file, fills in ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, runs skeleton-cli ask -p anthropic, and gets a confusing "no API key" error because the file is never read. SECURITY.md already hedged that the file is "only as documentation" — this makes that explicit at the point of use.

Keeping the file (rather than deleting it) preserves the near-universal .env.example convention and the single discoverable list of all five env vars.

Scope

Docs only — .env.example header comment + a matching [Unreleased] CHANGELOG line. No code or behavior change.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Nothing in the CLI loads a .env file: the settings layer reads
os.environ directly (no dotenv dependency, by design). The old header
said "Copy to .env for local use", which invites a silent failure —
values placed in .env are never read unless the user exports them.

Rewrite the header to state there is no auto-loader and show how to
export or source the vars (set -a; . ./.env; set +a).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@lilabrooks
lilabrooks merged commit 300ccf2 into main Jul 18, 2026
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@lilabrooks
lilabrooks deleted the docs/env-example-clarify branch July 18, 2026 01:03
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