diff --git a/server/.gitignore b/server/.gitignore
index eb6aa5be8..ddd91029c 100644
--- a/server/.gitignore
+++ b/server/.gitignore
@@ -3,8 +3,6 @@ js
 # .vscode
 logs
 
-src/secrets.ts
-
 .nyc_output
 coverage
 .env
@@ -15,3 +13,5 @@ scripts/arc-db-sync/songs.json
 scripts/validate-database-errs/*
 
 scripts/__JSON-TO-KTDB/**/*.json
+
+/src/lib/env/config.json
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/server/src/example-secrets.ts b/server/src/example-secrets.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index 661215c03..000000000
--- a/server/src/example-secrets.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-// This is an example file for the secrets.ts file - which is not not available in the repository.
-
-export const CAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY = "change-me";
-
-export const SESSION_SECRET = "change-me";
-
-export const FLO_API_URL = "https://google.com";
-
-export const EAG_API_URL = "https://google.com";
-
-export const ARC_API_URL = "https://google.com";
diff --git a/server/src/lib/env/env.ts b/server/src/lib/env/env.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d59b3d542
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/lib/env/env.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+// barrel file for re-exporting env variables.
+
+const envVars = [
+    "KTBKS_MONGO_BASE_URL",
+    "KTBKS_LOG_LEVEL",
+    "KTBKS_CAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY",
+    "KTBKS_SESSION_SECRET",
+    "KTBKS_FLO_API_URL",
+    "KTBKS_EAG_API_URL",
+    "KTBKS_ARC_API_URL",
+];
+
+for (const eVar of envVars) {
+    if (!process.env[eVar]) {
+        throw new Error(`${eVar} was not defined.`);
+    }
+}
+
+export const MONGO_BASE_URL = process.env.KTBKS_MONGO_BASE_URL!;
+export const LOG_LEVEL = process.env.KTBKS_LOG_LEVEL!;
+export const SESSION_SECRET = process.env.KTBKS_SESSION_SECRET!;
+export const CAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY = process.env.KTBKS_CAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY!;
+export const FLO_API_URL = process.env.KTBKS_FLO_API_URL!;
+export const EAG_API_URL = process.env.KTBKS_EAG_API_URL!;
+export const ARC_API_URL = process.env.KTBKS_ARC_API_URL!;