Staging & Preview Environments

Creating a preview environment

Preview environments let you test changes before going live:

1. Open your app and go to the Environments section
2. Click Create Preview Environment
3. Select the branch to deploy
4. Server Compass creates an isolated container with its own domain
5. Preview branches auto-delete on a configurable timer

Staging vs preview

• Staging — A persistent environment that mirrors production. Use for QA and integration testing.
• Preview — Temporary environments tied to branches. Auto-created on push, auto-deleted after a timer.

Both run as separate containers with their own environment variables and domains.

Promoting to production

When a preview or staging environment is validated:

1. Click Promote to Production
2. Server Compass redeploys the same image/branch to production
3. If zero-downtime is enabled, the swap happens without interruption