diff --git a/lightrag/api/auth.py b/lightrag/api/auth.py
index 78a1da1a..1e92d1b9 100644
--- a/lightrag/api/auth.py
+++ b/lightrag/api/auth.py
@@ -3,7 +3,9 @@ from datetime import datetime, timedelta
 import jwt
 from fastapi import HTTPException, status
 from pydantic import BaseModel
+from dotenv import load_dotenv
 
+load_dotenv()
 
 class TokenPayload(BaseModel):
     sub: str  # Username
diff --git a/lightrag/api/lightrag_server.py b/lightrag/api/lightrag_server.py
index 4d4896fc..6c8d11f1 100644
--- a/lightrag/api/lightrag_server.py
+++ b/lightrag/api/lightrag_server.py
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ from .auth import auth_handler
 # Load environment variables
 # Updated to use the .env that is inside the current folder
 # This update allows the user to put a different.env file for each lightrag folder
-load_dotenv(".env", override=True)
+load_dotenv()
 
 # Initialize config parser
 config = configparser.ConfigParser()
diff --git a/lightrag/api/run_with_gunicorn.py b/lightrag/api/run_with_gunicorn.py
index cf9b3b91..00821acb 100644
--- a/lightrag/api/run_with_gunicorn.py
+++ b/lightrag/api/run_with_gunicorn.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ from dotenv import load_dotenv
 
 # Updated to use the .env that is inside the current folder
 # This update allows the user to put a different.env file for each lightrag folder
-load_dotenv(".env")
+load_dotenv()
 
 
 def check_and_install_dependencies():
diff --git a/lightrag/api/utils_api.py b/lightrag/api/utils_api.py
index 9a8aaf57..53ea3ae8 100644
--- a/lightrag/api/utils_api.py
+++ b/lightrag/api/utils_api.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ from starlette.status import HTTP_403_FORBIDDEN
 from .auth import auth_handler
 
 # Load environment variables
-load_dotenv(override=True)
+load_dotenv()
 
 global_args = {"main_args": None}