diff --git a/packages/void/src/cli/secret.ts b/packages/void/src/cli/secret.ts
index d8d182aec..ba5d84c27 100644
--- a/packages/void/src/cli/secret.ts
+++ b/packages/void/src/cli/secret.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { parseEnv } from 'node:util';
 import { outro, log, cancel, isCancel, password, confirm } from '@voidzero-dev/vite-plus-prompts';
 import { getToken } from './auth.ts';
 import { PlatformClient } from './client.ts';
@@ -155,32 +156,21 @@ async function resolveCloudflareSecretBackend(
 }
 
 const SECRET_KEY_RE = /^[A-Z][A-Z0-9_]*$/;
+const UTF8_BOM = '\uFEFF';
 
+// Reads the file with Node's dotenv grammar, the same one `.env` loading uses,
+// but calls `parseEnv` directly: shared/dotenv.ts would expand `$VAR`, and a
+// `$` inside a secret value must stay literal.
 export function parseDotenvFile(filePath: string): Array<{ name: string; value: string }> {
-  const content = readFileSync(filePath, 'utf-8');
   const secrets: Array<{ name: string; value: string }> = [];
 
-  for (const line of content.split('\n')) {
-    const trimmed = line.trim();
-    if (!trimmed || trimmed.startsWith('#')) {
+  const raw = readFileSync(filePath, 'utf-8');
+  // parseEnv keeps a leading BOM as part of the first key name.
+  const text = raw.startsWith(UTF8_BOM) ? raw.slice(UTF8_BOM.length) : raw;
+  for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(parseEnv(text))) {
+    if (value === undefined) {
       continue;
     }
-
-    const eqIndex = trimmed.indexOf('=');
-    if (eqIndex === -1) {
-      throw new Error(`secret: Invalid dotenv line '${trimmed}'. Add KEY=value.`);
-    }
-
-    const key = trimmed.slice(0, eqIndex).trim();
-    let value = trimmed.slice(eqIndex + 1).trim();
-
-    if (
-      (value.startsWith('"') && value.endsWith('"')) ||
-      (value.startsWith("'") && value.endsWith("'"))
-    ) {
-      value = value.slice(1, -1);
-    }
-
     if (!SECRET_KEY_RE.test(key)) {
       throw new Error(
         `secret: Invalid secret name '${key}'. Use uppercase letters, digits, and underscores.`,
diff --git a/packages/void/test/unit/secret-sync.test.ts b/packages/void/test/unit/secret-sync.test.ts
index 41be8fe3f..a1cb93c62 100644
--- a/packages/void/test/unit/secret-sync.test.ts
+++ b/packages/void/test/unit/secret-sync.test.ts
@@ -68,11 +68,49 @@ describe('parseDotenvFile', () => {
     expect(() => parseDotenvFile(file)).toThrow("secret: Invalid secret name '1KEY'");
   });
 
-  it('errors on lines without =', () => {
-    const file = writeTemp('NOTAVALIDLINE');
-    expect(() => parseDotenvFile(file)).toThrow(
-      "secret: Invalid dotenv line 'NOTAVALIDLINE'. Add KEY=value",
+  it('skips lines without =, like .env loading', () => {
+    const file = writeTemp('NOTAVALIDLINE\nAPI_KEY=abc');
+    expect(parseDotenvFile(file)).toEqual([{ name: 'API_KEY', value: 'abc' }]);
+  });
+
+  it('drops inline comments after unquoted and quoted values', () => {
+    const file = writeTemp('STRIPE_KEY=sk_live_abc # live key\nTOKEN="abc" # note\nHASH=\'a#b\'');
+    expect(parseDotenvFile(file)).toEqual([
+      { name: 'HASH', value: 'a#b' },
+      { name: 'STRIPE_KEY', value: 'sk_live_abc' },
+      { name: 'TOKEN', value: 'abc' },
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it('accepts the export prefix', () => {
+    const file = writeTemp('export API_KEY=abc');
+    expect(parseDotenvFile(file)).toEqual([{ name: 'API_KEY', value: 'abc' }]);
+  });
+
+  it('reads multi-line quoted values and \\n in double quotes', () => {
+    const file = writeTemp(
+      'PEM="-----BEGIN KEY-----\nAAAA\n-----END KEY-----"\nCERT="line1\\nline2"',
     );
+    expect(parseDotenvFile(file)).toEqual([
+      { name: 'CERT', value: 'line1\nline2' },
+      { name: 'PEM', value: '-----BEGIN KEY-----\nAAAA\n-----END KEY-----' },
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it('keeps $VAR references literal', () => {
+    const file = writeTemp('BASE=x\nPASSWORD=p$BASE${BASE}');
+    expect(parseDotenvFile(file)).toEqual([
+      { name: 'BASE', value: 'x' },
+      { name: 'PASSWORD', value: 'p$BASE${BASE}' },
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it('ignores a UTF-8 byte order mark at the start of the file', () => {
+    const file = writeTemp('API_KEY=abc\nSECRET=x');
+    expect(parseDotenvFile(file)).toEqual([
+      { name: 'API_KEY', value: 'abc' },
+      { name: 'SECRET', value: 'x' },
+    ]);
   });
 
   it('returns empty array for empty file', () => {