EnvKey-PHP: A Secure Configuration and Secrets Manager for PHP Projects

2023/06/01

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EnvKey-PHP is an open-source PHP library that integrates EnvKey, an end-to-end encrypted configuration and secrets manager, with your PHP projects. With this library, developers can keep API keys, credentials, and other configuration securely and automatically in sync for both developers and servers.

To get started, download and install EnvKey from their website and create a new org. Follow the quickstart guide to initialize an app with a .envkey file for development or generate a server ENVKEY for production. Then, include the composer autoloader at the entry point of your application.

Once set up, all your EnvKey variables will be available with getenv('VARIABLE_NAME'). This package will not overwrite existing environment variables or additional variables set in the .env file you loaded your ENVKEY from, making it convenient for customizing environments that share the same configuration. You can also use branches or local overrides for this purpose.

Unlike other EnvKey language libraries that expect a long-running server process, EnvKey-PHP is designed for PHP's short-lived per-request processes. Instead of loading config from an EnvKey host on every request, which would add 100-500ms of latency depending on location and connection speed, EnvKey-PHP caches the config for the lifetime of the request.

Overall, EnvKey-PHP is a valuable tool for PHP developers looking to secure their configuration and secrets. With its easy integration and short-lived process design, it's a great choice for projects of all sizes.