.env.vault.local

instead, as it is designed to be committed and shared across the entire project team.

If a junior developer commits this file, you aren't leaking your production secrets (those are in the vault). But you are leaking their local debugging paths, local IPs, and potentially embarrassing test data. .env.vault.local

: Keeps secrets encrypted even if the repository is leaked; an attacker would need both the .env.vault file and the specific DOTENV_KEY to read them. Decentralization instead, as it is designed to be committed

file helps manage the local decryption process without exposing your global project keys. Local Overrides : Similar to standard .env.local : Keeps secrets encrypted even if the repository

In many modern CLI tools (like the dotenv-vault CLI), .env.vault.local serves as the of your vault for local use, or a place to store the keys needed to decrypt the vault on your machine.

If you see decryption errors, it usually means your .env.vault.local file is out of sync or your local session has expired. Deleting the file and running npx dotenv-vault login again usually fixes the issue. Merge Conflicts