I have .env file at root folder file
NODE_ENV=development
NODE_HOST=localhost
NODE_PORT=4000
NODE_HTTPS=false
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_USERNAME=user
DB
In the remote case that you arrive till this point, my issue was quite dumber: I wrongly named my env variables with colon ":" instead of equals "=". Rookie mistake but the resulting behavior was not loading the misspelled variables assignment.
# dotenv sample content
# correct assignment
USER=sample@gmail.com
# wrong assignment (will not load env var)
USER : sample@gmail.com