diff --git a/.env b/.env
deleted file mode 100644
index 5628e7d..0000000
--- a/.env
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,45 +0,0 @@
-# Domain
-# This would be set to the production domain with an env var on deployment
-# used by Traefik to transmit traffic and acquire TLS certificates
-DOMAIN=localhost
-# To test the local Traefik config
-# DOMAIN=localhost.tiangolo.com
-
-# Used by the backend to generate links in emails to the frontend
-FRONTEND_HOST=http://localhost:5173
-# In staging and production, set this env var to the frontend host, e.g.
-# FRONTEND_HOST=https://dashboard.example.com
-
-# Environment: local, staging, production
-ENVIRONMENT=local
-
-PROJECT_NAME="Full Stack FastAPI Project"
-STACK_NAME=full-stack-fastapi-project
-
-# Backend
-BACKEND_CORS_ORIGINS="http://localhost,http://localhost:5173,https://localhost,https://localhost:5173,http://localhost.tiangolo.com"
-SECRET_KEY=changethis
-FIRST_SUPERUSER=admin@example.com
-FIRST_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD=changethis
-
-# Emails
-SMTP_HOST=
-SMTP_USER=
-SMTP_PASSWORD=
-EMAILS_FROM_EMAIL=info@example.com
-SMTP_TLS=True
-SMTP_SSL=False
-SMTP_PORT=587
-
-# Postgres
-POSTGRES_SERVER=localhost
-POSTGRES_PORT=5432
-POSTGRES_DB=app
-POSTGRES_USER=postgres
-POSTGRES_PASSWORD=changethis
-
-SENTRY_DSN=
-
-# Configure these with your own Docker registry images
-DOCKER_IMAGE_BACKEND=backend
-DOCKER_IMAGE_FRONTEND=frontend
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f903ab6..707668a 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,5 +1,12 @@
 .vscode/*
 !.vscode/extensions.json
+
+# Local environment files (may contain secrets)
+.env
+.env.*
+!.env.example
+!**/.env.example
+
 node_modules/
 /test-results/
 /playwright-report/
diff --git a/frontend/.env b/frontend/.env
deleted file mode 100644
index 27fcbfe..0000000
--- a/frontend/.env
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:8000
-MAILCATCHER_HOST=http://localhost:1080