From d1aec285341254c1749295b77b2ec6a52c09aa04 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Barry Botha <barry@hydracorp.ltd>
Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2025 18:33:30 +0300
Subject: [PATCH] feat(config): add dotenv support; prefer env over
 config.toml; add .env.example; fix db_user default

---
 .env.example | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++
 Cargo.toml   |  1 +
 src/utils.rs | 10 ++++++++--
 3 files changed, 29 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 .env.example

diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..335f26f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+# Example environment configuration for Valence
+# Copy to .env and adjust values as needed
+
+DEBUG=true
+EXTERN_PORT=8081
+
+DB_PROTOCOL=mongodb://
+DB_URL=localhost
+DB_PORT=27017
+DB_USER=root
+DB_PASSWORD=example
+
+CACHE_URL=redis://localhost
+CACHE_PORT=6379
+CACHE_PASSWORD=secret
+
+BODY_LIMIT=8192
+CACHE_TTL=900
+
+MARKET=false
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 840f1d9..714dd44 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ edition = "2021"
 async-trait = "0.1.73"
 chrono = "0.4.26"
 config = "0.13.3"
+dotenvy = "0.15.7"
 cuckoofilter = "0.5.0"
 futures = "0.3.28"
 hex = "0.4.3"
diff --git a/src/utils.rs b/src/utils.rs
index e26833b..5d650fb 100644
--- a/src/utils.rs
+++ b/src/utils.rs
@@ -170,7 +170,13 @@ pub async fn init_cuckoo_filter<T: KvStoreConnection>(
 
 /// Loads the config file
 pub fn load_config() -> EnvConfig {
-    let settings = config::Config::builder().add_source(config::File::with_name(CONFIG_FILE));
+    // Load variables from a .env file into process environment if present
+    dotenvy::dotenv().ok();
+
+    // File-sourced config first, then environment with higher precedence
+    let settings = config::Config::builder()
+        .add_source(config::File::with_name(CONFIG_FILE))
+        .add_source(config::Environment::default());
 
     match settings.build() {
         Ok(config) => EnvConfig {
@@ -183,7 +189,7 @@ pub fn load_config() -> EnvConfig {
                 .unwrap_or(SETTINGS_DB_URL.to_string()),
             db_user: config
                 .get_string("db_user")
-                .unwrap_or(SETTINGS_DB_URL.to_string()),
+                .unwrap_or(SETTINGS_DB_USER.to_string()),
             db_protocol: config
                 .get_string("db_protocol")
                 .unwrap_or(SETTINGS_DB_PROTOCOL.to_string()),