Goodbye `dotenv` and `nodemon`: A Cleaner Workflow with Node.js ≥ 20.6
By Sharan Panthi
#node.js#node js#v20.6#dotenv#nodemon
Modern Node.js just got a lot simpler. If you’re running Node.js 20.6 or later, you can finally drop two long-time staples of the Node ecosystem: dotenv and nodemon. Thanks to built-in environment file loading and native file-watching, many projects no longer need these extra dependencies at all.
Native .env Support
Node.js now lets you load environment variables directly with a simple flag:
node --env-file=.env app.js
No more dotenv dependency, no extra setup. It’s built into Node, works the same way, and keeps your project lighter and cleaner—especially in production, where external .env loaders often aren’t ideal.
Native File Watching
For development, you can now run: