How does it handle dotted keys like DB_POOL_SIZE?

Optional: toggle 'expand dots' to create nested YAML (db.pool.size → a 3-level tree). Default keeps the flat KEY_NAME form.

Yes — `true`/`false` become booleans, digits become numbers. Toggle off to preserve everything as strings, useful when the consumer expects string semantics.

What about multi-line values?

YAML's `|` block literal. Values with newlines become block-style; single-line values stay inline as strings.

Can I go back from YAML to .env?

Yes — pair with yaml-to-env. Flattens the nested tree back to dot-delimited keys. Round-trip is lossless for simple values.

.env → YAML | DevTools Surf

DevTools Surf

Example: .env → YAML

A worked example, rendered from real sample data. Sign in to run the tool on your own input.

Input

APP_NAME=myapp
APP_PORT=3000
DATABASE_HOST=localhost
DATABASE_USER=postgres

Output

app:
  name: myapp
  port: 3000
database:
  host: localhost
  user: postgres

About .env → YAML

Group dotted KEY_NAME pairs back into a YAML tree. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the Converters collection.

Use Cases

Restructuring flat environment variables into a YAML config file
Creating Docker Compose configs from existing .env files
Generating Kubernetes ConfigMap YAML from deployment secrets
Converting legacy shell exports into structured application config

Tips

Dotted key names like DB_HOST are grouped into nested YAML
Check the YAML output for correct indentation and nesting
Use this to reverse-engineer flat configs into structured format

Fun Facts

YAML supports 63 scalar types out of the box in the 1.1 specification, including timestamps, binary, and null — far more than most developers realize.
The most common YAML gotcha is that 'NO' and 'yes' are parsed as booleans, not strings, in YAML 1.1 — a source of countless bugs in CI configs.
YAML was designed to be a human-friendly data serialization format and is a strict superset of JSON, meaning every valid JSON file is also valid YAML.

FAQ

How does it handle dotted keys like DB_POOL_SIZE?: Optional: toggle 'expand dots' to create nested YAML (db.pool.size → a 3-level tree). Default keeps the flat KEY_NAME form.
Does it infer types?: Yes — `true`/`false` become booleans, digits become numbers. Toggle off to preserve everything as strings, useful when the consumer expects string semantics.
What about multi-line values?: YAML's `|` block literal. Values with newlines become block-style; single-line values stay inline as strings.
Can I go back from YAML to .env?: Yes — pair with yaml-to-env. Flattens the nested tree back to dot-delimited keys. Round-trip is lossless for simple values.

Related Converters Tools

JSON to XML JSON to CSV JSON to YAML JSON to TSV JSON to String XML to JSON XML to CSV XML to String