Environments let you switch between different API configurations (development, staging, production) without changing your requests.

1. Click the environment dropdown in the header bar
2. Select Manage Environments
3. Add variables:
   • baseUrl → http://localhost:3000
   • apiKey → dev-key-12345
4. Use {{baseUrl}} and {{apiKey}} in your requests
5. Switch environments with Ctrl+E

Environments are stored as YAML files in your collection:

.apiark/
└── environments/
 ├── development.yaml
 ├── staging.yaml
 └── production.yaml

# .apiark/environments/development.yaml
name: Development
variables:
 baseUrl: http://localhost:3000
 apiVersion: v2
 apiKey: dev-key-12345
 timeout: "5000"
secrets:
 - accessToken # Value stored in .env, not here
 - adminPassword

# .apiark/environments/production.yaml
name: Production
variables:
 baseUrl: https://api.example.com
 apiVersion: v2
 apiKey: prod-key-67890
 timeout: "30000"
secrets:
 - accessToken
 - adminPassword

Stored in the YAML file, visible in Git, shareable with your team.

variables:
 baseUrl: https://api.example.com
 apiKey: public-key-12345

Values stored in .env file (gitignored), masked in the UI by default.

secrets:
 - accessToken
 - dbPassword

# .apiark/.env
accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIs...
dbPassword=super-secret-password

Secrets are never committed to Git, never written to history, and never logged.

Apply to ALL collections. Managed in Settings → Global Environment.

{{baseUrl}}/api/users/{{userId}}

headers:
 Authorization: "Bearer {{accessToken}}"
 X-API-Key: "{{apiKey}}"

{
 "email": "{{userEmail}}",
 "token": "{{accessToken}}"
}

// Read
const url = ark.env.get("baseUrl");
// Write
ark.env.set("userId", "usr_123");
// Delete
ark.env.unset("tempVar");
// Get all
const vars = ark.env.toObject();

Built-in variables that generate values on each request:

url: "{{baseUrl}}/api/users"
headers:
 X-Request-ID: "{{$uuid}}"
 X-Timestamp: "{{$isoTimestamp}}"
body:
 type: json
 content: |
 {
 "email": "{{$randomEmail}}",
 "name": "Test User {{$randomInt}}"
 }

Variables are resolved in this order (later overrides earlier):

1. Global variables (apply to all collections)
2. Collection defaults (from apiark.yaml)
3. Active environment (from environments/*.yaml)
4. Folder variables (from _folder.yaml)
5. Request-level variables (set in scripts)
6. Dynamic variables ({{$uuid}}, etc.)

ApiArk auto-loads .env files from the collection root:

# .apiark/.env
DATABASE_URL=postgres://localhost:5432/mydb
API_SECRET=my-secret-key
JWT_TOKEN=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIs...

These values are available as {{DATABASE_URL}}, {{API_SECRET}}, etc.

The .env file is auto-added to .gitignore when you create a collection.

Click the eye icon next to any variable reference in the URL bar or editors to peek at the current resolved value without switching to the environment panel.

• Use environments for per-stage config: Base URLs, API keys, feature flags
• Use secrets for sensitive values: Tokens, passwords, private keys
• Use scripts for dynamic values: Computed values, chained request data
• Use .env for machine-specific config: Local DB URLs, personal tokens
• Name clearly: baseUrl not url, adminToken not token