Environment Variable Loading

When a project agent starts, it only combines two user-facing env layers:

1. host-provided new Agent({ env })
2. project-root .env

Common use cases

• sharing common secrets from the host
• overriding host values per project with .env

Recommended practice

• let the host inject shared secrets into Agent
• keep project-local overrides in .env
• keep downcity.json structural only; ${VAR} placeholders are no longer supported

Benefits:

• env flow is explicit
• config stays stable
• there is no hidden string replacement during config loading

What to do after changes

Usually you should restart the agent:

town agent restart

The agent snapshots env at startup, so changing .env or host-injected values does not automatically refresh the current runtime process.