ImportError: cannot import name 'env' from 'fabric.api'

TL;DR: env was Fabric 1's global settings bag; Fabric 2 has no equivalent. Move host lists into explicit Connection objects and settings into fabric.Config, or pin fabric<2 for the legacy fabfile.

ImportError: cannot import name 'env' from 'fabric.api'

Fix it

1. Replace env.hosts loops with explicit connections: for h in hosts: Connection(h).run(cmd). Expected: runs on each host.
2. Replace env.password / env.keyfilename with connectkwargs={'password': [your password]} or connectkwargs={'keyfilename': [path]}. Expected: auth works per connection.
3. Replace env.warn_only with Config(overrides={'run': {'warn': True}}). Expected: non-fatal failures as before.
4. Or pin fabric<2 to defer the rewrite. Expected: legacy fabfile runs.

When this applies

• The code does from fabric.api import env (or uses env.*) on fabric 2+.

When it doesn't

• fabric is 1.x: env exists; reinstall if the import fails.
• You are on the new API already: check for a typo.

Compatibility

• Fabric 1.x vs 2.x/3.x.

Why it happens

The v2 rewrite replaced global mutable state (env) with explicit per-connection configuration, which is saner but breaks every 1.x fabfile that touched env.

Edge cases

• env.roledefs has no direct equivalent; build host lists in plain Python.
• Serial vs parallel execution is now controlled by the Executor, not env.parallel.

Reported in GitHub (gh:tankywoo/simiki#109): from fabric.api import env, local, task, settings fails on fabric 2.x. The verified fix: Asked on Stack Overflow by developers migrating fabfiles whose from fabric.api import env failed. The verified answer: env was a Fabric 1 global that does not exist in v2, so move settings into Config objects or Connection kwargs. Source: the linked Stack Overflow thread. Source: https://github.com/tankywoo/simiki/issues/109 Thread ref: gh:tankywoo/simiki#109