Frustrations with .env File Handling and Environments in 1Password

To whom it may concern,

I just tried to add some basic .env files to 1Password and was honestly surprised at how difficult and unsatisfying the experience was. I’ve always considered 1Password a premium, polished product, and I’ve really enjoyed using it so far. But in this case, the lack of functionality is pretty disappointing.

I know you recently launched the Environments beta, which seems like a step in the right direction, but it’s clearly not fully fleshed out. Most programming projects of mine include multiple environment files, not just one. Some values in these files are sensitive, and others aren’t, so we should be able to choose which fields are masked (as passwords) and which are shown normally. Importing and exporting environment files should also be seamless, currently, it’s anything but.

But the biggest issue with Environments right now is that they apparently don’t belong to vaults. That means I can’t share them with coworkers, which makes them basically useless for team projects. What’s the point of having them at all if they can’t be shared?

So I tried workarounds:

•  First, I attempted to store the variables in a secure note. While you can manually add fields, that’s clunky and time-consuming. Then I tried uploading the .env file to the note, but on macOS, the file picker doesn’t show hidden files, and apparently there’s no way to make it do so. This made it impossible to upload the file with its original name, a really basic oversight, and one that shouldn’t exist in a premium product.
• Next, I tried using a Document item. At least the drag-and-drop upload worked (unlike Secure Notes), but now I’m locked into a document type that only allows a single file. That’s just not workable when a project has multiple secret environment files. Even worse, if I want to replace the file, the drag-and-drop UI disappears entirely, so I can’t upload a hidden file again. I’d have to delete the entire document and start over. That’s absurd.

I genuinely respect the work you’ve done on 1Password; it’s one of the few tools I’ve used that felt reliable and trustworthy out of the box. But these gaps in functionality around something as basic as handling environment files are frustrating. And for a product at this price point, I expect this sort of workflow to just work. It’s hard to believe these limitations haven’t already been addressed.

On top of that, it was surprisingly difficult to even find a proper way to give feedback like this. That feels like a mistake, if users can’t easily tell you where the product falls short, you miss the chance to improve it.

Anyway, I needed to get this off my chest. I hope this feedback is helpful, and that we’ll see improvements to these features soon.

Best regards,
Joël Grosjean