Environments
Available to: Everyone (end users choose an environment to work in; admins manage environments) Minimum plan: Free
An environment is a place your reference data lives — for example Prod, Stage, or a developer's own Dev environment. Each environment has its own copy of every deployed table and its own data, so data entered in Stage never appears in Prod.
Environments work together with branches:
- A branch holds table definitions — the structure of your tables. Developers change definitions on branches and move changes between branches with promotions.
- An environment holds the deployed tables and their data. A branch's definitions are applied to an environment with a deployment.
Each environment is deployed from exactly one branch. One branch can deploy to several environments — for example, main usually deploys to both Stage and Prod.
Choosing Your Environment
Your current environment decides what you see:
- End users see the tables, data, imports and exports of their current environment.
- Developers see the table definitions of the branch that deploys to their current environment. A prominent branch pill at the top of the Table Definitions page shows which branch that is.
To switch, click the Environment chooser in the top-right of the header and pick an environment. Production environments are shown in red with a PROD tag. After switching, end users go to the Tables page and developers go to the Table Definitions page.
You only see environments you have access to. Ask an administrator if an environment you need is missing.
Environment Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | A descriptive name, e.g. Prod, Stage, Test. |
| Schema | The database schema that holds the environment's tables, e.g. prd or stg. Set when the environment is created and cannot be changed. |
| Deployed from branch | The branch whose table definitions are deployed to this environment. |
| Parent environment | Where the environment sits in your environment hierarchy, e.g. Stage under Prod. |
| Production | Marks a production environment. Production environments stand out in red, ask for an extra confirmation before deploying, and new end users are given access to them. |
| Shared or private | Shared environments are used by the team. Private environments belong to one developer. |
| External id | Optional. The matching environment or release stage in your CI/CD system. |
Shared and Private Environments
- Shared environments such as Prod and Stage are set up by administrators in Admin > Environments.
- Private environments are created automatically with each developer branch. Every developer gets their own development branch and their own private environment to deploy and test their changes in, without affecting anyone else. A developer's default environment is called Dev and is shown with the developer's name, for example Dev (Jane Smith). Environments for a developer's other branches are named after the branch.
Default Setup
New accounts start with:
Branches Environments
main (shared) ───deploys to───▶ Prod (prd, production)
───deploys to───▶ Stage (stg)
└── dev (each developer) ─────▶ Dev (one private environment per developer)
Developers change table definitions on their own branch, deploy to their own Dev environment to test, then promote to main. Promoting to main creates a deployment for Stage and one for Prod, which are deployed when you are ready — usually Stage first, then Prod.
Administrators can change this setup — for example, add a test branch that deploys to a Test environment. The diagram at the top of Admin > Environments shows how your branches and environments fit together.
Managing Environments
Administrators manage environments in Admin > Environments:
- New Environment — choose a name, schema, the branch it is deployed from, its parent environment, and whether it is a production environment.
- Edit — change the name, branch, parent, production flag, external id or description. The schema cannot be changed.
- Delete — the environment is hidden straight away, but its data is kept for 30 days and it can be restored from the Deleted Environments list. After 30 days it is permanently removed together with its data.
When you add a new environment to a branch that already has deployed tables, create a deployment from Development > Deployments > New Deployment to bring it up to date.
Environment Permissions
Each environment has two user groups:
| User Group | Grants |
|---|---|
| Environment [Name] Editor | Access to the environment: select it and work with its data (together with a domain permission such as Data Manager). |
| Environment [Name] Deployer | Deploy changes to the environment. |
New end users are added to the Editor group of the production environments. New developers are added to the Editor group of every shared environment, so they can view and clone the definitions of shared branches. Administrators can access every environment.
Related Pages
- Branches — where table definitions are developed
- Deployments — applying a branch's definitions to an environment
- Promotions — moving changes between branches
- Permissions — how environment, branch and domain permissions combine