access-environment-variables

A TypeScript rule for reading environment variables with Effect, including required, optional, and defaulted values.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when loading values such as API keys, ports, or feature flags in an Effect application.
Why use it?
It makes missing or invalid settings explicit instead of leaving configuration errors hidden in the code.

Cursor rule

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/pauljphilp/effectpatterns/access-environment-variables
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PaulJPhilp/EffectPatterns
Per session 542 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 542 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00542 $0.00542
Opus 5 $0.00271 $0.00271
Sonnet 5 $0.00108 $0.00108
Haiku 4.5 $0.00054 $0.00054

Measured 2d ago against content hash ec6b74cd9e66, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

access-environment-variables scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

content/published/rules/cursor/access-environment-variables.mdc · 92 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 92 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

description: Use Effect to access environment variables with proper error handling. globs: "**/*.ts" alwaysApply: true

Access Environment Variables

Rule: Use Effect to access environment variables with proper error handling.

Example

import { Effect, Config, Option } from "effect"

// ============================================
// BASIC: Read required variable
// ============================================

const getApiKey = Config.string("API_KEY")

const program1 = Effect.gen(function* () {
  const apiKey = yield* getApiKey
  yield* Effect.log(`API Key: ${apiKey.slice(0, 4)}...`)
})

// ============================================
// OPTIONAL: With default value
// ============================================

const getPort = Config.number("PORT").pipe(
  Config.withDefault(3000)
)

const program2 = Effect.gen(function* () {
  const port = yield* getPort
  yield* Effect.log(`Server will run on port ${port}`)
})

// ============================================
// OPTIONAL: Return Option instead of failing
// ============================================

const getOptionalFeature = Config.string("FEATURE_FLAG").pipe(
  Config.option
)

const program3 = Effect.gen(function* () {
  const feature = yield* getOptionalFeature
  
  if (Option.isSome(feature)) {
    yield* Effect.log(`Feature enabled: ${feature.value}`)
  } else {
    yield* Effect.log("Feature flag not set")
  }
})

// ============================================
// COMBINED: Multiple variables as config object
// ============================================

const AppConfig = Config.all({
  apiKey: Config.string("API_KEY"),
  apiUrl: Config.string("API_URL"),
  port: Config.number("PORT").pipe(Config.withDefault(3000)),
  debug: Config.boolean("DEBUG").pipe(Config.withDefault(false)),
})

const program4 = Effect.gen(function* () {
  const config = yield* AppConfig
  
  yield* Effect.log(`API URL: ${config.apiUrl}`)
  yield* Effect.log(`Port: ${config.port}`)
  yield* Effect.log(`Debug: ${config.debug}`)
})

// ============================================
// RUN: Will fail if required vars missing
// ============================================

Effect.runPromise(program4).catch((error) => {
  console.error("Missing required environment variables")
  console.error(error)
})

Read the full file on GitHub · 92 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 92 lines · 542 tokens per session scan A ec6b74cd9e66

Subscribe to this mod's changes

access-environment-variables is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository PaulJPhilp/EffectPatterns (794 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 542 tokens to every session, about $0.0027 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.