diff --git a/loader/src/env.rs b/loader/src/env.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2f55d11a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/loader/src/env.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+extern crate alloc;
+use alloc::string::String;
+use alloc::vec::Vec;
+
+#[repr(C, packed)]
+pub struct EnvHeader {
+    magic_app: [u8; 4],
+    size: u32,
+    /// The size of the entire application slice, in bytes, including all headers
+    length_total: u32,
+    /// Number of application parameters present. Must be at least 1 (this block)
+    entries: u32,
+
+    magic_envb: [u8; 4],
+    /// Total number of bytes, excluding this header
+    size_env: usize,
+    /// The number of environment variables
+    count: u16,
+}
+
+#[derive(Debug)]
+pub struct EnvVariables {
+    count: usize,
+    flattened_vars: Vec<u8>,
+}
+
+impl EnvVariables {
+    pub fn new() -> Self { Self { count: 0, flattened_vars: Vec::new() } }
+
+    pub fn add_var(&mut self, key: &str, value: &str) {
+        self.flattened_vars.extend_from_slice(&(key.len() as u16).to_le_bytes());
+        self.flattened_vars.extend_from_slice(&key.as_bytes());
+        self.flattened_vars.extend_from_slice(&(value.len() as u16).to_le_bytes());
+        self.flattened_vars.extend_from_slice(&value.as_bytes());
+        self.count += 1;
+    }
+}
+
+impl EnvHeader {
+    pub fn default() -> Self {
+        EnvHeader {
+            magic_app: *b"AppP",
+            size: 8,
+            length_total: 0,
+            entries: 2,
+            magic_envb: *b"EnvB",
+            size_env: 0,
+            count: 0,
+        }
+    }
+
+    pub fn to_bytes<'a>(&'a mut self, vars: &'a EnvVariables) -> Vec<u8> {
+        let header_size = size_of::<Self>();
+        let total_len = header_size + vars.flattened_vars.len();
+        // finalize the length
+        self.length_total = total_len as u32;
+        self.size_env = total_len - 24; // size of all the elements up to and including `size_env`
+        // finalize env variables
+        assert!(vars.count < u16::MAX as usize, "too many environment variables");
+        self.count = vars.count as u16;
+
+        // Allocate contiguous memory on the stack or heap
+        let ptr = (self as *const Self) as *const u8;
+        let header_bytes = unsafe { core::slice::from_raw_parts(ptr, header_size) };
+
+        // Combine header + trailing data into one contiguous slice
+        let mut buf = Vec::with_capacity(total_len);
+        buf.extend_from_slice(header_bytes);
+        buf.extend_from_slice(&vars.flattened_vars);
+        buf.shrink_to_fit();
+        buf
+    }
+}
+
+pub fn to_hex_ascii(bytes: &[u8]) -> String {
+    const LUT: &[u8; 16] = b"0123456789ABCDEF";
+    let mut out = Vec::with_capacity(bytes.len() * 2);
+    for &b in bytes {
+        out.push(LUT[(b >> 4) as usize]);
+        out.push(LUT[(b & 0xF) as usize]);
+    }
+    // Safe because LUT only contains valid ASCII bytes
+    unsafe { String::from_utf8_unchecked(out) }
+}