Environments separate different levels of change risk. The common model is Development, Staging, and Production, but your workspace should use only the environments included in its plan and approved operating model.
Development
Development is where changes are created and evaluated with the lowest business risk. Use representative test data and avoid production credentials unless an approved design explicitly requires them.
Staging
Staging is a production-like validation boundary. It should exercise the workflow, credential references, integrations, and expected failure behavior before production approval.
Production
Production runs business operations. Changes should arrive through an approved promotion, with a known version and recovery plan. Direct runtime edits should be exceptional and reviewed as possible drift.
Read environment health
An environment card may show connection status, workflow count, repository state, secret state, desired-state health, and last reconciliation. Interpret these fields together:
- Connected: FlowKeyOps can currently communicate with the environment.
- Repository synced: repository information is current for the displayed scope.
- Secrets synced: managed credential metadata reports the expected synchronization state.
- Desired state healthy: no unresolved difference is currently reported.
- Last reconcile: when the most recent comparison or reconciliation completed.
Do not assume one green field means everything is healthy
An environment can be connected while a workflow is drifted, or its workflows can be synchronized while a credential needs attention. Start with the environment summary, then investigate the relevant workflow, secret, deployment, or drift record.