Allow editing locked environment variable defined in Docker Compose file (UI prevents deletion)

[Jonas-Marty]

Error Message and Logs

I have an environment variable that is defined in the project's docker-compose file. I'm new to Coolify and tried the Lock feature (the env also contains sensitive information so i assumed the lock function is a way to prevent looking at it). As expected I was not able to see its content afterwards but i was also not able to update the content. The UI tells me i need to deleted an recreate the Environment variable. So far so good and reasonable behavior but when I try to remove it via the Coolify UI it cannot be deleted because it is sourced from the compose file. So I'm basically stuck now and maybe need to update the underlying docker-compose file through committing to remove it (or at least allow me to remove it then).

Expected Behavior
The UI should either:

• Allow unlocking in case of docker compose provided Env variable
• Deleting by actually only delete the content.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a project using the a compose file that defines an environment variable for a service (e.g., KEY=... or interpolation KEY=${KEY}).
2. In Coolify's UI, open the project's Environment Variables — the variable appears because it is defined in the compose file.
3. Lock the environment variable
4. Try to update - no option as it is locked and must be deleted and recreated.
5. Attempt to delete the environment variable via the UI (fails)

Example Repository URL

No response

Coolify Version

v4.0.0-beta.473

Are you using Coolify Cloud?

No (self-hosted)

Operating System and Version (self-hosted)

Ubuntu Server 24.04

Additional Information

No response

[Cinzya]

Hey @Jonas-Marty , this is actually not a bug but the intended behavior. Removing the env variable from the Compose first would be indeed the needed step for you to be able to delete it in the UI. Coolify automatically adds / create all the env variables mentioned in your compose file in the Environment Variables UI in Coolify. That caused confusion for some users, because it would also make the env variable automatically re-appear in the UI when you try to delete it, if still present in the compose. Hence why it's now forced to delete from the compose first.

Of course this becomes quite frustrating, when dealing with locked environment variables, as you can't edit them, but have to delete and re-create it.

I will move this into the Discussions to turn it into a feature request.