Fix: Add .env file loading support for make deploy

[sarojrout]

Fixes #545

This change adds automatic loading of environment variables from .env files during deployment for both Cloud Run and Agent Engine targets.

Changes:

• Cloud Run: Makefile now loads .env file and merges variables with default deployment variables before passing to gcloud deploy
• Agent Engine: deploy.py now includes load_env_file() function that parses .env files and merges with CLI-provided variables
• Documentation: Updated deployment guide to document .env file support

The implementation:

• Automatically detects .env file in project root
• Parses KEY=VALUE pairs (ignoring comments and empty lines)
• Merges .env variables with default deployment variables
• CLI-provided variables take precedence over .env values
• Fully backward compatible (works without .env file)

Tested with test project to verify parsing and merging works correctly.

[gemini-code-assist[bot]]

Summary of Changes

Hello @sarojrout, I'm Gemini Code Assist[^1]! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request significantly enhances the deployment process for both Cloud Run and Agent Engine targets by introducing automatic loading of environment variables from .env files. This change streamlines configuration management, allowing developers to define environment-specific settings in a standard .env file, which is then seamlessly integrated into the deployment process. The implementation ensures backward compatibility and proper variable precedence, improving the overall developer experience for managing deployment configurations.

Highlights

• Cloud Run Deployment: The make deploy command for Cloud Run now automatically loads environment variables from a .env file in the project root, merging them with default deployment variables before passing them to gcloud deploy.
• Agent Engine Deployment: The deploy.py script for Agent Engine now includes a load_env_file() function to parse .env files, merging them with CLI-provided variables, where CLI inputs take precedence.
• Documentation Update: The deployment guide has been updated to reflect and explain the new .env file loading support for both Cloud Run and Agent Engine deployment targets.
• Variable Precedence: CLI-provided environment variables will always take precedence over those loaded from the .env file, ensuring explicit overrides are respected.

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[eliasecchig]

Thanks for your contribution! On Cloud Run side, .env files should be already auto loaded by ADK Server. Do you not find this working?

[eliasecchig]

Raised and merged this to fill the gap on Agent Engine, please let me know if it looks good!

https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/agent-starter-pack/pull/552