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We sometimes want to store some structural data in an environment variable, in which case we can expose the environment variable in another global variable:

Define environment variables:

ini

# .env.example
FOO=

ini

# .env
FOO='["BAR","BAZ"]'

Validate, parse, and expose the environment variables:

// json-env.ts
// you could use other tools you like:
import { z } from "zod";
// you could export instead of expose to global it:
Object.defineProperty(globalThis, "jsonEnv", {
  configurable: false,
  writable: false,
  value: {
    FOO: z.array(z.string()).parse(import.meta.env.FOO),
  },
});

(Recommended) Import the json-env.ts at the top of your application, then you can ensure that the rest of your application will have a valid JSON env:
ts
```
// main.ts
import "./json-env.ts";
```
Then you can use it anywhere:
ts
```
console.log(jsonEnv.FOO[0]);
// > "BAR"
```

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