From 8962b656ad5d588e755a61320e135ab757b8cc67 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: odilitime <janesmith@airmail.cc>
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2024 02:37:21 +0000
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] don't require .env to exist

---
 packages/core/src/settings.ts | 14 ++++----------
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/packages/core/src/settings.ts b/packages/core/src/settings.ts
index 9de8564cb..92bdc049a 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/settings.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/settings.ts
@@ -69,18 +69,12 @@ export function loadEnvConfig(): Settings {
     // Node.js environment: load from .env file
     const envPath = findNearestEnvFile();
 
-    if (!envPath) {
-        throw new Error("No .env file found in current or parent directories.");
-    }
-
-    // Load the .env file
-    const result = config({ path: envPath });
+    // attempt to Load the .env file into process.env
+    const result = config(envPath ? { path: envPath } : {});
 
-    if (result.error) {
-        throw new Error(`Error loading .env file: ${result.error}`);
+    if (!result.error) {
+        console.log(`Loaded .env file from: ${envPath}`);
     }
-
-    console.log(`Loaded .env file from: ${envPath}`);
     return process.env as Settings;
 }
 

From c3ab9463c1f0629ae36e0f2c9161b17aee8c4d39 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: odilitime <janesmith@airmail.cc>
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2024 03:14:01 +0000
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] add note about .env being optional

---
 README.md | 4 +++-
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 95bd57f67..646cb0eb2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -54,12 +54,14 @@
 
 ### Edit the .env file
 
-Copy .env.example to .env and fill in the appropriate values
+Copy .env.example to .env and fill in the appropriate values.
 
 ```
 cp .env.example .env
 ```
 
+Note: .env is optional. If your planning to run multiple distinct agents, you can pass secrets through the character JSON
+
 ### Automatically Start Eliza
 
 This will run everything to setup the project and start the bot with the default character.