How to use cross-env or dotenv

[cspotcode]

This was shared in #1351. The pull request was not suitable for merging, so I've closed it and copied the contents here.

dotenv

1. install dotenv package
2. create .env file with you enviroment variables
3. add -r dotenv/config to your package.json scripts

{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node -r ts-node/register -r dotenv/config src/index.ts"
  }
}

cross-env

1. install cross-env package
2. add cross-env NODE_ENV=development to your package.json scripts

{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "cross-env NODE_ENV=production ts-node src/index.ts"
  }
}

or combine use cross-env with dotenv:

{
  "scripts": {
    "start-dev": "cross-env NODE_ENV=development node -r ts-node/register -r dotenv/config src/index.ts"
  }
}