dotenv path will not pick up .env files but sees everything else in the folder.

i have tried

• dotenv.config({path:'relative path'})
• dotenv.config({path:'absolute path'})

when i try the relative path it sees everything except .env file. like it dosen’t exist. i open it up in vs code / file explorer, it is very much there.

the structure is like this:

root:
modules
playwright-report
pupputeer
test-results
tests
.env
example.spec.ts
login.test.ts
tests-examples
.gitignore
package-lock.json
package.json
playwright.config.ts

login.test.ts code

import dotenv from 'dotenv';
dotenv.config({ path: './tests/.env' });
import { firefox, test } from "@playwright/test";

test("Login test demo", async () => {
const browser = await firefox.launch();
const context = await browser.newContext();
const page = await context.newPage();

      console.log(process.env);
    
      await page.goto("https://ecommerce-playground.lambdatest.io/");
      await page.hover("//a[@data-toggle='dropdown']//span[contains(.,'My account')]");
      await page.click("text=Login");
    
      // await page.fill("input[name='email']", );

});

playwright.config.ts code

   import type { PlaywrightTestConfig } from "@playwright/test";

   const config: PlaywrightTestConfig = {
      use: {
         headless: false
      },
      
      testMatch: ["tests/login.test.ts"]
   }

   export default config;

package.json code:

{
   "type": "commonjs",
   "name": "scrape",
   "version": "1.0.0",
   "main": "index.js",
   "scripts": {
      "start": "ts-node tests-examples/demo-todo-app.spec.ts"
   },
   "keywords": [],
   "author": "",
   "license": "ISC",
   "description": "",
   "devDependencies": {
      "@playwright/test": "^1.46.1",
      "@types/node": "^22.5.0"
   },
   "dependencies": {
      "dotenv": "^16.4.5",
      "ts-node": "^10.9.2"
   }
}

i run npx playwright test, to launch