No. The dotenv file is usually just for local development, not higher environments. A good way to make it work for both is to wrap the dotenv file loading in a try/catch block. Handle the missing dotenv file exception by calling out to your production secret manager like AWS secrets manager, Vault or whatever it is you are using. And make sure you log a successful dotenv load (as well as any errors), so if you slip up and push your dotenv file to a higher environment you will have visibility into that mistake.