How to check for incorrect env usage in Laravel with Pest

If you’re using Laravel, then you should be familiar with the env() helper. This helper allows you to get the values from your .env file, or set a value if one doesn’t exist.

You should only be calling env() in config files though. When you run config:cache, this tells the application to use values from your config files. If you’re referencing env() in, for example, a Controller, then it’ll return null.

With this in mind, I have the following test in my applications, which helps me ensure that env() isn’t used anywhere but config files:

test('the codebase does not reference env variables outside of config files')
    ->expect('env')
    ->not->toBeUsed();

So this test will look inside my /app directory, and any sub-directories such as Controllers, Providers, Middleware etc… and check them all for env usage.

Made possible of course, with the wonderful Architecture Testing plugin in Pest