Zod Config

Load configuration variables from multiple sources type safely using Zod.

NPM

The new major version supports both Zod 4 and Zod 3 out of the box. Check the compatibility section for more details.

Features

• 👮‍♂️ Type safety. Zod Config uses Zod;
• 🤌 Tiny. Zod Config is a tiny library with no dependencies, tree-shaking friendly;
• ✨ Flexible. Combine multiple adapters to load the configuration from different sources. We deeply merge the configuration from different sources, following the order of the adapters provided; Create your own adapters easily; Use the callback functions to handle errors and success due to the async nature of the adapters;
• 🪴 Easy to use. Zod Config is designed to be easy to use, with a simple API;
• 🔄 Async / Sync support. Zod Config provides both asynchronous and synchronous APIs to fit different application needs;

Install

npm install zod-config zod # npm
pnpm add zod-config zod # pnpm
yarn add zod-config zod # yarn

Table of contents:

• Quick Start
• Compatibility
• Basic Usage
  • Default Adapter
  • Synchronous loading
• Built In Adapters
  • Env Adapter
  • JSON Adapter
  • JSON5 Adapter
  • YAML Adapter
  • TOML Adapter
  • Dotenv Adapter
  • Script Adapter
  • Directory Adapter
• Advanced Features
  • Combine multiple adapters
  • Transform function
  • Lenient key matching
  • Silent mode
  • Callbacks
  • Custom Logger
• Contributing notes
• On the web

Quick Start

Zod Config provides both asynchronous and synchronous APIs for loading configuration:

• loadConfig: Asynchronous function that takes a Zod Object schema and returns a promise resolving to the validated configuration object;
• loadConfigSync: Synchronous version that takes the same configuration but returns the result directly without a promise;

Note: loadConfigSync only supports synchronous adapters and schemas. For details on compatibility, see Synchronous loading.

Here are the available configuration options:

Here are the available configuration options for loadConfig and loadConfigSync:

Property	Type	Description	Required	Global	Adapter
schema	AnyZodObject	A Zod Object schema to validate the configuration.	✅	N/A	N/A
adapters	Array<Adapter | SyncAdapter> | Adapter | SyncAdapter	Adapter(s) to load the configuration from. If not provided, process.env will be used.	❌	N/A	N/A
onError	(error: InferredErrorConfig<T>) => void)	A callback to be called when an error occurs.	❌	✅	❌
onSuccess	(data: InferredDataConfig<S>) => void	A callback to be called when the configuration is loaded successfully.	❌	✅	❌
logger	Logger	A custom logger to be used to log messages. By default, it uses console.	❌	✅	❌
keyMatching	'strict' | 'lenient'	How to match keys between the schema and the data of the adapters. By default, it uses strict.	❌	✅	✅
silent	boolean	Whether to suppress errors. By default, it is false.	❌	✅	✅
transform	(obj: { key: string; value: unknown }) => { key: string; value: unknown } | false	Function to transform key-value pairs before processing. If the function returns false, the key-value pair will be dropped.	❌	✅	✅

Note: Options marked as both "Global" and "Adapter" can be set at the global level (affecting all adapters) or at individual adapter level (affecting only that adapter). When both are provided, the adapter-level option takes precedence. For specific adapter options, check the section of the adapter you are using.

From the package we also expose the necessary types in case you want to use them in your own adapters. Some of the options are shared between the global config and the adapter config, so you can use them in your own adapters as well.

This library provides some built in adapters to load the configuration from different sources via modules. You can easily import them from zod-config/<built-in-adapter-module-name>.

Compatibility

Zod Config supports both Zod 4 and Zod 3 out of the box. To start using it, just make sure you have the correct versions of zod-config (zod-config@^1.0.0) and zod (zod@^3.25.0 or zod@^4.0.0)!

// Using Zod 4
import { z } from "zod/v4"; // for ^4.0.0 zod versions, you can import from "zod" instead
// Using Zod 4 Mini
import { z } from "zod/v4-mini"; // for ^4.0.0 zod versions, you can import from "zod/mini" instead
// Using Zod 3
import { z } from "zod/v3";

import { loadConfig } from "zod-config";
import { envAdapter } from "zod-config/env-adapter";

const schema = z.object({
  name: z.string(),
});

const config = await loadConfig({
  schema,
  adapters: [
    envAdapter(),
  ],
});

Basic Usage

Default Adapter

By default, Zod Config will load the configuration from process.env, no need to provide any adapter.

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfig } from 'zod-config';

const schemaConfig = z.object({
  port: z.string().regex(/^\d+$/),
  host: z.string(),
});

const config = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig
});

// config is now type safe!
console.log(config.port)
console.log(config.host)

Built In Adapters

Env Adapter

Loads the configuration from process.env or a custom object, allowing you to filter the keys using a regex (this can be useful when you have multiple adapters and you want to filter the keys to avoid conflicts or just to keep only the keys you need to process). To support nested objects, you can use the nestingSeparator property that will be used to create nested objects from flat keys based on the separator.

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfig } from 'zod-config';
import { envAdapter } from 'zod-config/env-adapter';

const schemaConfig = z.object({
  MY_APP_PORT: z.string().regex(/^\d+$/),
  MY_APP_HOST: z.string(),
});

// using default env (process.env)
const config = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  adapters: envAdapter(),
});

// using custom env + filter regex to match only the keys we need
const customConfig = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  adapters: envAdapter({ 
    regex: /^MY_APP_/,
    customEnv: {
      MY_APP_PORT: '3000',
      MY_APP_HOST: 'localhost',
      IGNORED_KEY: 'ignored',
    }})
});

// using nesting separator to create nested objects
const nestedConfig = await loadConfig({
  schema: z.object({
    database: z.object({
      host: z.string(),
      port: z.string(),
    }),
  }),
  adapters: envAdapter({
    customEnv: {
      'database.host': 'localhost',
      'database.port': '5432',
    },
    nestingSeparator: '.',
  }),
});

JSON Adapter

Loads the configuration from a json file.

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfig } from 'zod-config';
import { jsonAdapter } from 'zod-config/json-adapter';
import path from 'path';

const schemaConfig = z.object({
  MY_APP_PORT: z.string().regex(/^\d+$/),
  MY_APP_HOST: z.string(),
});

const filePath = path.join(__dirname, 'config.json');

const config = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  adapters: jsonAdapter({ path: filePath }),
});

// using filter regex to match only the keys we need
const customConfig = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  adapters: jsonAdapter({ 
    path: filePath,
    regex: /^MY_APP_/,
  }),
});

JSON5 Adapter

Loads the configuration from a json5 file. In order to use this adapter, you need to install json5 (peer dependency), if you don't have it already.

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfig } from 'zod-config';
import { json5Adapter } from 'zod-config/json5-adapter';
import path from 'path';

/** content of config.json5
{
  // Server settings
  host: 'localhost',       // Single quotes + unquoted key
  port: 3000,              // Trailing comma
  allowedIPs: [
    '192.168.0.1',
    '10.0.0.1',  // Local access
  ]
}
*/

const filePath = path.join(__dirname, 'config.json5');

const schemaConfig = z.object({
  host: z.string(),
  port: z.number(),
  allowedIPs: z.array(z.string()),
});

const config = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  adapters: json5Adapter({ path: filePath }),
});

YAML Adapter

Loads the configuration from a yaml file. In order to use this adapter, you need to install yaml (peer dependency), if you don't have it already.

npm install yaml

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfig } from 'zod-config';
import { yamlAdapter } from 'zod-config/yaml-adapter';
import path from 'path';

const schemaConfig = z.object({
  MY_APP_PORT: z.string().regex(/^\d+$/),
  MY_APP_HOST: z.string(),
});

const filePath = path.join(__dirname, 'config.yaml');

const config = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  adapters: yamlAdapter({ path: filePath }),
});

// using filter regex to match only the keys we need
const customConfig = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  adapters: yamlAdapter({ 
    path: filePath,
    regex: /^MY_APP_/,
  }),
});

TOML Adapter

Loads the configuration from a toml file. In order to use this adapter, you need to install smol-toml (peer dependency), if you don't have it already.

npm install smol-toml

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfig } from 'zod-config';
import { tomlAdapter } from 'zod-config/toml-adapter';
import path from 'path';

const schemaConfig = z.object({
  MY_APP_PORT: z.string().regex(/^\d+$/),
  MY_APP_HOST: z.string(),
});

const filePath = path.join(__dirname, 'config.toml');

const config = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  adapters: tomlAdapter({ path: filePath }),
});

// using filter regex to match only the keys we need
const customConfig = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  adapters: tomlAdapter({ 
    path: filePath,
    regex: /^MY_APP_/,
  }),
});

Dotenv Adapter

Loads the configuration from a .env file. In order to use this adapter, you need to install dotenv (peer dependency), if you don't have it already. To support nested objects, you can use the nestingSeparator property that will be used to create nested objects from flat keys based on the separator.

npm install dotenv

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfig } from 'zod-config';
import { dotEnvAdapter } from 'zod-config/dotenv-adapter';
import path from 'path';

const schemaConfig = z.object({
  MY_APP_PORT: z.string().regex(/^\d+$/),
  MY_APP_HOST: z.string(),
});

const filePath = path.join(__dirname, '.env');

const config = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  adapters: dotEnvAdapter({ path: filePath }),
});

// using filter regex to match only the keys we need
const customConfig = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  adapters: dotEnvAdapter({ 
    path: filePath,
    regex: /^MY_APP_/,
  }),
});

// using nesting separator to create nested objects
// .env file content: DATABASE_HOST=localhost\nDATABASE_PORT=5432
const nestedConfig = await loadConfig({
  schema: z.object({
    DATABASE: z.object({
      HOST: z.string(),
      PORT: z.string(),
    }),
  }),
  adapters: dotEnvAdapter({
    path: filePath,
    nestingSeparator: '_',
  }),
});

Script Adapter

Loads configuration from TypeScript (.ts), JavaScript (.js), or JSON (.json) files. The .ts and .js files must export a default object with the configuration data.

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfig } from 'zod-config';
import { scriptAdapter } from 'zod-config/script-adapter';
import path from 'path';

const schemaConfig = z.object({
  port: z.string().regex(/^\d+$/),
  host: z.string(),
});

// config.ts might contain: export default { port: '3000', host: 'localhost' }
const filePath = path.join(__dirname, 'config.ts');

const config = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  adapters: scriptAdapter({
    path: filePath,
  }),
});

Directory Adapter

Loads configuration from a directory containing multiple configuration files (usually used in combination with the scriptAdapter and/or other file related adapter). Inspired by node-config, the files in the config directory are loaded in the following order:

default.EXT
default-{instance}.EXT
{deployment}.EXT
{deployment}-{instance}.EXT
{short_hostname}.EXT
{short_hostname}-{instance}.EXT
{short_hostname}-{deployment}.EXT
{short_hostname}-{deployment}-{instance}.EXT
{hostname}.EXT
{hostname}-{instance}.EXT
{hostname}-{deployment}.EXT
{hostname}-{deployment}-{instance}.EXT
local.EXT
local-{instance}.EXT
local-{deployment}.EXT
local-{deployment}-{instance}.EXT

Where EXT is the file extension (e.g., ts, js, json), instance is the NODE_APP_INSTANCE environment variable, deployment is the NODE_CONFIG_ENV or NODE_ENV environment variables, hostname is the HOST, HOSTNAME environment variables or os.hostname() and short_hostname is the first part of the hostname.

This adapter can be useful when using version control to manage different configurations for different environments.

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfig } from 'zod-config';
import { directoryAdapter } from 'zod-config/directory-adapter';
import { scriptAdapter } from 'zod-config/script-adapter';
import path from 'path';

const schemaConfig = z.object({
  port: z.string().regex(/^\d+$/),
  host: z.string(),
});

const directories = [path.join(__dirname, 'config-dir')];

const config = await loadConfig({
  schema,
  adapters: directoryAdapter({
    paths: directories,
    adapters: [
      {
        // Restrict adapter to handle only ts files
        extensions: [".ts"], 
         // Use the scriptAdapter for handling .ts files
        adapterFactory: (filePath: string) => 
          scriptAdapter({
            path: filePath,
          }),
      },
      // {
      //  Add here other adapters for other file types if needed
      // }
    ],
  }),
});

Advanced Features

Combine multiple adapters

You can combine multiple adapters to load the configuration from different sources. We deeply merge the configuration from different sources, following the order of the adapters provided.

⚠️ Warning: When combining multiple adapters, null values from subsequent adapters will override existing values. This behavior can be used intentionally to reset configuration values.

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfig } from 'zod-config';
import { envAdapter } from 'zod-config/env-adapter';
import { jsonAdapter } from 'zod-config/json-adapter';
import path from 'path';

const schemaConfig = z.object({
  port: z.string().regex(/^\d+$/),
  host: z.string(),
});

const filePath = path.join(__dirname, 'config.json');

const config = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  adapters: [
    jsonAdapter({ path: filePath }),
    envAdapter(),
  ],
});

Synchronous loading

The loadConfig function is asynchronous to allow for adapters that are asynchronous. If you are only using synchronous adapters, you can use the loadConfigSync function which is synchronous and does not return a promise.

The following default adapters are synchronous and can be used with loadConfigSync:

• envAdapter
• jsonAdapter
• json5Adapter
• yamlAdapter
• tomlAdapter
• dotEnvAdapter

When implementing a custom adapter that you want to use with loadConfigSync, make sure to implement the SyncAdapter interface instead of the Adapter interface.

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfigSync } from 'zod-config';
import { envAdapter } from 'zod-config/env-adapter';
import { jsonAdapter } from 'zod-config/json-adapter';
import path from 'path';

const schemaConfig = z.object({
  port: z.string().regex(/^\d+$/),
  host: z.string(),
});

const filePath = path.join(__dirname, 'config.json');

const config = loadConfigSync({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  adapters: [
    jsonAdapter({ path: filePath }),
    envAdapter(),
  ],
});

Callbacks

You can use the callbacks to handle errors and success due to the async nature of the adapters.

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfig } from 'zod-config';

loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  onError: (error) => {
    console.error('An error occurred while loading the configuration:', error);
  },
  onSuccess: (config) => {
    console.log('Configuration loaded successfully:', config);
  },
});

Custom Logger

You can provide a custom logger to be used to log messages. By default, it uses console.

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfig, Logger } from 'zod-config';

const schemaConfig = z.object({
  port: z.string().regex(/^\d+$/),
  host: z.string(),
});

const customLogger: Logger = {
  warn: (message) => {
    // your custom implementation, e.g., log to a file or call an external service
  },
};

const config = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  logger: customLogger,
});

Silent mode

If any adapter fails, we will still return the data from other adapters. However, by default, we log a warning internally if an adapter fails. You can use the silent flag to avoid logging the warning. This is useful when you have multiple adapters and you don't want to log a warning for each adapter that fails. Example for the built-in envAdapter:

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfig } from 'zod-config';
import { envAdapter } from 'zod-config/env-adapter';

const schemaConfig = z.object({
  port: z.string().regex(/^\d+$/),
  host: z.string(),
});

const config = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  // silent: true --> also available in the global config in case you want to use it for all adapters
  adapters: envAdapter({ silent: true }),
});

Lenient key matching

If the source of your adapters uses a different casing or formatting compared to the schema you are using, you can enable the key matching lenient option. This is useful when working with environment variables that typically use UPPER_SNAKE_CASE or when integrating with different systems that use varying naming conventions. By default, the key matching is strict, meaning that the keys must match exactly.

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfig } from 'zod-config';
import { envAdapter } from 'zod-config/env-adapter';

const schemaConfig = z.object({
  myHost: z.string(),
});

const config = await loadConfig({
  schema: schemaConfig,
  keyMatching: 'lenient',
  adapters: envAdapter({
    // keyMatching: 'lenient' --> it can also be applied to the adapter level if you want to use a different key matching for a specific adapter
  }),
});

In this example, the key MYHOST, MY_HOST, or my-host from the adapter would be correctly matched to myHost in your schema.

The lenient matching works by comparing keys after:

1. Removing all non-alphanumeric characters (like underscores, hyphens, dots)
2. Converting to lowercase

Transform function

The transform property allows you to modify key-value pairs before they are processed by the schema. This is useful for normalizing data, filtering out unwanted keys, or transforming values. The transform function receives an object with key and value properties and can return either a transformed object or false to drop the key-value pair. The transform function can be applied at both the global level (affecting all adapters) and the adapter level (affecting only that specific adapter). When both are provided, the adapter-level transform takes precedence.

Note: The transform function is the first step in the data processing pipeline, before all the other capabilities of the library (e.g., key matching, nesting separator, etc.).

import { z } from 'zod';
import { loadConfig } from 'zod-config';
import { envAdapter } from 'zod-config/env-adapter';

const schema = z.object({
  database: z.object({
    host: z.string(),
    port: z.string(),
  }),
  apiKey: z.string(),
});

// Global transform - applied to all adapters
const config = await loadConfig({
  schema,
  transform: ({ key, value }) => {
    // Drop sensitive keys
    if (key.includes('SECRET')) {
      return false;
    }
    
    // Transform keys to lowercase
    return {
      key: key.toLowerCase(),
      value,
    };
  },
  adapters: envAdapter({
    customEnv: {
      'DATABASE_HOST': 'localhost',
      'DATABASE_PORT': '5432',
      'API_KEY': 'my-key',
      'SECRET_TOKEN': 'should-be-dropped',
    },
    nestingSeparator: '_',
  }),
});

// Adapter-level transform - applied only to this adapter
const configWithAdapterTransform = await loadConfig({
  schema,
  adapters: envAdapter({
    customEnv: {
      'MY_APP_DATABASE_HOST': 'localhost',
      'MY_APP_DATABASE_PORT': '5432',
      'MY_APP_API_KEY': 'my-key',
      'OTHER_VAR': 'ignored',
    },
    transform: ({ key, value }) => {
      // Only process keys that start with 'MY_APP_'
      if (!key.startsWith('MY_APP_')) {
        return false;
      }
      
      // Remove the prefix and convert to lowercase
      const cleanKey = key.replace(/^MY_APP_/, '').toLowerCase();
      
      return {
        key: cleanKey,
        value,
      };
    },
    nestingSeparator: '_',
  }),
});

// Complex transformation with multiple operations
const complexConfig = await loadConfig({
  schema: z.object({
    api: z.object({
      key: z.string(),
      timeout: z.string(),
    }),
    database: z.object({
      host: z.string(),
      port: z.string(),
    }),
  }),
  adapters: envAdapter({
    customEnv: {
      'API_KEY': 'secret123',
      'API_TIMEOUT': '30000',
      'DB_HOST': 'localhost',
      'DB_PORT': '5432',
      'CACHE_TTL': '3600',
    },
    transform: ({ key, value }) => {
      // Transform different prefixes to nested structure
      if (key.startsWith('API_')) {
        return {
          key: key.replace('API_', 'api.').toLowerCase(),
          value,
        };
      }
      
      if (key.startsWith('DB_')) {
        return {
          key: key.replace('DB_', 'database.').toLowerCase(),
          value,
        };
      }
      
      // Drop other keys
      return false;
    },
    nestingSeparator: '.',
  }),
});

Contributing notes

The goal is to have a helper to load configuration data from several srouces. If you have any source in mind, feel free to open a PR to add it or just open an issue to discuss it. More adapters are coming soon.

On the web

• This library is referenced in the official Zod documentation as part of the ecosystem section "Powered by Zod", check it out here;

• This library is referenced in the Next.js Weekly newsletter (Packages / Tools / Repos section);

• Check related dev.to article here;