Environment Variables

All environment variables used in production are defined via the GitHub Actions deployment.

You must never change environment variables directly in Google Cloud (GCP).

1. You can add and edit environment variables within the build.yml workflow.
   • Specifically the env_vars section. Each new line is a variable with the format KEY=value.
   • Keys should be uppercase, and the SNAKE_CASE format (using underscore to separate words).
   • Keys must not be prefixed with K_*, PORT, CLOUD_RUN_*, FUNCTION_*, or X_GOOGLE_*. It must also not contain an equals sign (=) or be empty.
2. Secret variables should be loaded from GitHub Secrets. This uses the format ${{ secrets.KEY }}.
   • The key used by GitHub Secrets should match that as the environment variable (this is to help with maintenance, there is not a technical requirement).
   • You can add and edit GitHub Secrets here. You cannot read values in GitHub Secrets once saved. Ask James if you need the original value.
   • Not all environment variables need to be secrets, you can use plain text inside the workflow where it's just a variable that didn't feel worth hard-coding.
3. Environment variables will be updated as part of the next deployment.
   • Deployments are automatically done when merging into main.
   • You can manually trigger a deployment by pressing "Run workflow" on the build.yml workflow.

tl;dr:

• Edit the workflow to add a new KEY=value pair.
• Add the value to GitHub Secrets if necessary.
• Deploy the application (by pushing a commit, merging, or manually triggering the workflow).