Yes you can, I just tested it in version 3.7.1.

Thats awesome to hear. thank-you

this fails in bash too, no?

No.

Var1=test echo $var1 will fail unless you are using an external echo command, which is unlikely

the bash builtin echo will fail to see var1 because this declaration at the command level only affects subshells

So yes.

You mean "set VAR1 test"? Isn't that the same? Or you specifically want the other syntax?

Edit: just realized you meant env variables... Yeah, this is one thing I also miss, but definitely still prefer fish personally.