((top)) — .env.local

file so it is never uploaded to GitHub or other public repositories. .env.local Local Overrides : In frameworks like

allow you to pull your cloud-configured development variables directly into your .env.local using simple CLI commands (e.g., vercel env pull .env.local .env.local

Since .env.local isn't tracked by Git, new developers won't know which variables they need to set. Create a .env.example file with the keys but dummy values (e.g., API_KEY=your_key_here ) and commit that instead. file so it is never uploaded to GitHub