Managing environment variables across the project

[CosmoWorker]

Summary

I am trying to understand how the environmental variables need to be handled. I see in the docs that .env files should be used in the packages where they are used.

I come across some suggestions over the internet that having .env in the root might be helpful to share across multiple applications. But I also came across usage of packages folder for keeping common content such as config, schema, and the database part (ORM).

For Context, consider my current file structure (inspired):

    ├── package.json
    ├── pnpm-lock.yaml
    ├── pnpm-workspace.yaml
    ├── turbo.json
    ├── .npmrc
    ├── apps/
    │   ├── http-server/
    │   │   ├── .. .. ..
    │   │   └── src/
    │   │       ├── auth.ts
    │   │       └── index.ts
    │   ├── web/
    │   └── ws-server/
    │       ├──.. .. ..
    │       └── src/
    │           └── index.ts
    └── packages/
        ├── backend-common/
        │   ├── .. ..
        │   └── src/
        │      └── config.ts
        |    |___ .env    
        ├── common/
        │   ├── .. .. ..
        │   └── src/
        │       └── types.ts
        ├── db/
        │   ├── .. .. ..
        │   ├── prisma/.. ..
        │   └── src/
        │       └── client.ts
        |    |___ .env   
        ├── eslint-config/
        ├── typescript-config/
        └── ui/

I have my environmental variables setup in backend-common with config(exported). So When I try to import it in one of the server, I cannot run the server as env variables are loaded in the config rather than the application which is server.

As I previously said I am confused which approach should I follow as this one fails to meet my requirements to directly access env variables from packages folder. Does having .env in the apps/ at root the solution? How should I handle db credentials as well?

if .env is placed at root, then I would have to do something like this which I don't think is the best practice maybe:
dotenv.config({ path: path.resolve(__dirname, '../../.env') });

Please do point me out if what I wanted was little confusing or off the mark.  

References:

• Using environmental variables
• Reference github repo- turborepo
• Stackoverflow - root env

Example

https://github.com/CosmoWorker/Turbo-repo-Chat