gemini-cli - 💡(How to fix) Fix Environment Leakage: .env variables from project root poison shell environment and override subprocess configurations [1 participants]

What happened?

When running Gemini CLI in a Laravel project, the CLI automatically loads variables from the project's .env file into its own process environment. These variables are then exported to the shell environment.

When executing child processes like php artisan test (which uses PHPUnit/Pest), these child processes inherit the OS-level environment variables. In PHP, getenv() prioritizes these OS-level variables over variables defined in phpunit.xml. As a result, tests run against the production/local database defined in .env instead of the testing database defined in phpunit.xml. This is extremely dangerous when using traits like RefreshDatabase, as it can lead toaccidental data loss in the main database.

What did you expect to happen?

The Gemini CLI should not automatically export .env variables to the shell environment in a way that poisons child processes. Subprocesses like php artisan test should be able to use their own environment configurations (from phpunit.xml or .env.testing) without being overridden by leaked variables from the CLI's parent process.

Client information

Run gemini to enter the interactive CLI, then run the /about command.

> /about
 CLI Version                              0.38.2                                                                      │
│ Git Commit                               b0ed611a0                                                                   │
│ Model                                    Auto (Gemini 3)                                                             │
│ Sandbox                                  no sandbox                                                                  │
│ OS                                       win32 (Windows 11)                                                                       │
│ Auth Method                              Signed in with Google                               │
│ Tier                                     Gemini Code Assist in Google One AI Pro

Login information

Signed in with Google Account (Google One AI Pro tier).

Anything else we need to know?

This issue was identified while trying to run Pest tests in a Laravel 13 project on Windows. The environment leakage was confirmed by running Get-ChildItem Env: inside the Gemini CLI shell, which showed all variables from the .env file (like DB_DATABASE=stockease) already set at the OS level.

A temporary workaround is to manually prefix every test command with environment variables (e.g., $env:DB_DATABASE="testing"; php artisan test), but this is error-prone and defeats the purpose of automatic configuration via phpunit.xml.