Managing Environment Configurations

Overview

Manage application configurations across development, staging, and production environments using .env files, Kubernetes ConfigMaps/Secrets, SSM Parameter Store, and cloud-native configuration services. Enforce consistency, prevent configuration drift, and implement safe promotion workflows between environments.

Prerequisites

• Access to all target environments (dev, staging, production)
• Configuration management tool or pattern identified (dotenv, ConfigMaps, SSM, Consul)
• Version control for configuration files (separate repo or encrypted in application repo)
• Encryption tool for sensitive values (sops, age, sealed-secrets, or cloud KMS)
• Understanding of which values differ between environments vs. which are shared

Instructions

1. Audit existing configuration: scan for .env files, config/ directories, Kubernetes ConfigMaps, and hardcoded values in source code
2. Classify each configuration value: public (non-sensitive, varies per env), secret (credentials, API keys), and static (same across all envs)
3. Extract hardcoded values into externalized configuration with a clear naming convention (APP_DATABASE_HOST, APP_REDIS_URL)
4. Create environment-specific configuration files: .env.development, .env.staging, .env.production