diff --git a/src/variableParser.ts b/src/variableParser.ts
index 69f88f9..33ea8ec 100644
--- a/src/variableParser.ts
+++ b/src/variableParser.ts
@@ -5,12 +5,29 @@ import { isDict } from "./utils/typeUtils";
 import { checkVariables } from "./checkTypes";
 import { Variables } from "./variables";
 
+function replaceProcessEnvVars(vars: Variables): Variables {
+  // replace all instances of $env.NAME in the values of the dict with process.env.NAME if it exists
+  const replacedVars: Variables = {};
+  for (const key in vars) {
+    const value = vars[key];
+    if (typeof value !== "string") {
+      replacedVars[key] = value;
+      continue;
+    }
+
+    replacedVars[key] = value.replace(/\$env\.([A-Za-z0-9_]+)/g, (match, procVarName) => {
+      return process.env[procVarName] ?? match;
+    });
+  }
+
+  return replacedVars;
+}
+
 // we may pass an empty string if the document is not actually a bundle
 export function getBundleVariables(doc: string | undefined): Variables {
   let parsedData = doc ? YAML.parse(doc) : {};
-  if (!isDict(parsedData)) {
+  if (!isDict(parsedData))
     throw new Error("Bundle could not be parsed. Is your bundle a valid YAML document?");
-  }
 
   const variables = parsedData.variables;
   if (variables !== undefined) {
@@ -41,7 +58,7 @@ export function getEnvironments(bundleContent: string | undefined, varFileConten
 export function loadVariables(
   envName: string | undefined,
   bundleContent: string | undefined,
-  varFileContents: string[],
+  varFileContents: string[]
 ): Variables {
   if (!envName) return {};