Repository secrets: no batch upload?

[icyvapor]

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Just discovered the Repository Secrets as the best practice for handling API keys and config etc.

The particular application I'm working with use a .env file to setup the env vars.
I'm curious why there's no batch uploading to setup the Repository environment.

Thanks!

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[victormoni]

Hey! @icyvapor 👋

Yeah, GitHub doesn’t currently provide a batch upload/import option for repository or environment secrets. Right now, they have to be added one by one through the UI or using the GitHub CLI / API.

Alternative approaches you can try:

• GitHub CLI (gh) → you can script multiple gh secret set commands to load variables from a .env file.
• REST or GraphQL API → useful if you want to automate secret creation across multiple repos.
• Reusable workflows → sometimes you can avoid duplicating secrets by centralizing them at the org/environment level instead of repo-level.

I agree, though—it would be super convenient if GitHub supported native bulk import (like uploading a .env file directly). That’s good product feedback, and you’re not the first to mention it. 🚀

In the meantime, scripting with gh + .env is probably the closest workaround.

[icyvapor]

Hey @victormoni,
Thanks for the reply.
As you mentioned, nothing a quick script with GitHub CLI won't solve. For me the limited number of env vars doesn't justify the overhead of looking into it.
Posted out of curiosity, but seems this is a ticket. Feel free to close.