Authentication & Secrets
Env File
Also: .env file, dotenv
A plain text file of environment variables, often holding API keys and database passwords for local development.
In more detail
Its convenience is its risk: it sits in a project folder where it can be committed, copied into an archive or container image, printed to a terminal, or read by anything running as you, including a coding agent. Keep it out of version control and share secrets through a secret manager.