Help configuring .doco-cd.yml for projects with .env files

[bukhamsin]

Hello

I really like the concept of doco-cd but I am struggling to get it to work. I got it running and connected it to my private forgejo repo. Now the repo only contains compose.yml files but not .env files. How do I get doco-cd to successfully deploy my services with .env file? I have caddy for example where I use .env file for some secrets

This is caddy directory structure

~/
└──docker/
   ├──.doco-cd.yml
   └──caddy/
      ├──conf/
      │  └──Caddyfile
      ├──.env
      ├──compose.yaml
      └──Dockerfile 

this is my .doco-cd.yml

name: caddy
reference: main
working_dir: caddy
# also tried 
env_files:
  - .env

services:
  caddy:
    container_name: caddy
    image: caddy-custom:${CADDY_VERSION}
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
      args:
        CADDY_VERSION: ${CADDY_VERSION}
    restart: unless-stopped
    env_file: 
    - .env
....etc

this is the error I get

{
  "time": "2026-04-24T03:05:09.120988638+03:00",
  "level": "error",
  "msg": "failed to deploy",
  "error": "failed to deploy stack caddy: failed to load compose config: failed to get .env file for interpolation: couldn't find env file: /volume1/@docker/volumes/doco-cd_data/_data/192.168.1.10_222/user/homelab/caddy/.env",
  "interval": 60,
  "job_id": "019dbcbb-a4b4-7938-b113-d60fd4c02719",
  "reconciliation_id": "019dbccd-fb75-7e15-b48b-32cd91b3bc45",
  "repository": "192.168.1.10:222/user/homelab"
}

[kimdre]

Make sure the .env file exists on the main branch, maybe you are on a different branch?
Is the docker directory above your caddy directory part of your repository?

[bukhamsin]

Docker directory is not part of the repo but all folders in it are. .env files are not commited in the repo, is there a way for doco-cd to read them without commiting them?

[kimdre]

The .env file must exist in the repository.
You should either encrypt the .env file and commit it to the repository or use external secrets to fetch the sensitive values.