# Database name. DB_NAME=my_app_db
You’ve just finished building a brilliant feature. You push your code to GitHub , and five minutes later, a teammate pings you: "Hey, the app is crashing on startup. What environment variables do I need?" .env.sample
Some tools parse your code for process.env references and auto-generate a sample file. Not common but interesting. # Database name
SESSION_TIMEOUT=86400
When a new developer joins a project, they need to know which environment variables to set up. Without a sample file, they are forced to dig through the source code looking for every instance of process.env or os.getenv() . A .env.sample tells them exactly what they need in five seconds. 2. It Protects Your Secrets and five minutes later