ENVIRONMENTS

nself Environments Guide

Version 0.9.9 | Managing development, staging, and production environments

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Overview

nself supports multiple environments with cascading configuration. This guide covers setting up and managing environments for your project.

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Environment Types

Environment	Purpose	Configuration
local	Developer machine	.env.dev + .env.local
staging	Testing/QA	.env.dev + .env.staging
production	Live users	.env.dev + .env.prod + .secrets

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Configuration Hierarchy

Files load in order, with later files overriding earlier:

.env.dev          # Base config (committed)
    ↓
.env.local        # Local overrides (gitignored)
    ↓
.env.staging      # Staging overrides
    ↓
.env.prod         # Production overrides
    ↓
.secrets          # Sensitive credentials

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Setting Up Environments

Local Development

# Create project
nself init

# Base configuration
cp .env.example .env.dev

# Local overrides (gitignored)
echo "DEBUG=true" > .env.local

Staging

# Create staging environment
nself env create staging

# Configure staging
vi .environments/staging/.env.staging
vi .environments/staging/server.json

Production

# Create production environment
nself env create prod

# Configure production (on server)
vi .env.prod

# Generate secrets (on server)
nself init --secure

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Switching Environments

# Switch to staging
nself env switch staging

# Switch to production
nself env switch prod

# Switch back to local
nself env switch local

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Environment Variables

Required Variables

Variable	Description
PROJECT_NAME	Project identifier
ENV	Environment (dev/staging/prod)
BASE_DOMAIN	Domain name

Environment-Specific

Variable	Dev	Staging	Prod
DEBUG	true	true	false
LOG_LEVEL	debug	info	warn
SSL_MODE	mkcert	letsencrypt	letsencrypt

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Syncing Environments

# Pull staging config
nself sync config staging

# Pull production data (anonymized)
nself sync db prod --anonymize

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Access Control

Role	Local	Staging	Prod
Dev	✅	❌	❌
Sr Dev	✅	✅	❌
Lead	✅	✅	✅

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Best Practices

1. Never commit secrets - Use .secrets file on server
2. Use cascading config - Base in .env.dev, overrides per environment
3. Anonymize production data - When syncing to local/staging
4. Separate credentials - Different passwords per environment
5. Test in staging first - Before deploying to production

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See Also

• env command
• deploy command
• sync command