diff --git a/publify/publify.py b/publify/publify.py
index 1a7e8fa..17ae1ba 100644
--- a/publify/publify.py
+++ b/publify/publify.py
@@ -7,10 +7,11 @@ import uuid
 
 import requests
 
-from dotenv import load_dotenv
-
-load_dotenv()
-NETLIFY_TOKEN = os.environ["NETLIFY_TOKEN"]
+try:
+    NETLIFY_TOKEN = os.environ["NETLIFY_TOKEN"]
+except KeyError:
+    print("Please set the environment variable NETLIFY_TOKEN")
+    sys.exit(1)
 AUTH_HEADER = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {NETLIFY_TOKEN}"}
 NETLIFY_DOMAINS = os.getenv("NETLIFY_DOMAINS") or ""
 if NETLIFY_DOMAINS:
@@ -129,7 +130,7 @@ def cli_remove_custom_domain() -> None:
     Remove a custom domain from a Netlify site
     """
     if len(NETLIFY_DOMAINS) == 0:
-        print("Please set NETLIFY_DOMAINS in your .env file")
+        print("Please set the environment variable NETLIFY_DOMAINS")
         raise NoCustomDomains
     try:
         custom_domain = sys.argv[sys.argv.index("--remove-custom-domain") + 1]
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 6e054ea..ea9d77c 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,9 +1,5 @@
 certifi==2022.12.7
 charset-normalizer==3.1.0
 idna==3.4
-markdown-it-py==2.2.0
-mdurl==0.1.2
-Pygments==2.14.0
-python-dotenv==1.0.0
 requests==2.28.2
 urllib3==1.26.15
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index e7c0115..44d3408 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ setup(
     ],
     packages=["publify"],
     include_package_data=True,
-    install_requires=["python-dotenv", "requests"],
+    install_requires=["requests"],
     python_requires=">=3.10",  # only because we're using | instead of typing.Union; otherwise >= 3.9
     url="https://github.com/zevaverbach/publify",
     entry_points={"console_scripts": ["pub=publify.publify:main"]},