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Environment Management

Environment-aware configurations ensure your infrastructure adapts to different deployment stages with appropriate settings for development, staging, and production environments.

Environment Context Files​

Each environment has its own context file:

Keep per-environment settings in your project config and reference them from your CDK app.

See:

Example: project.json with configurations​

{
  "name": "orders",
  "targets": {
    "deploy": {
      "executor": "@mhshahzad/nx-cdk-deploy:deploy",
      "options": {
        "stack": "orders"
      },
      "configurations": {
        "dev": {
          "account": "111111111111",
          "region": "us-east-1"
        },
        "staging": {
          "account": "222222222222",
          "region": "us-east-1"
        },
        "prod": {
          "account": "333333333333",
          "region": "us-east-2"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Your CDK app can read these values (e.g., via context or env vars) to select the right AWS environment.

Example: cdk.json context (optional)​

{
  "app": "npx ts-node --prefer-ts-exts src/main.ts",
  "context": {
    "orders:dev": { "account": "111111111111", "region": "us-east-1" },
    "orders:staging": { "account": "222222222222", "region": "us-east-1" },
    "orders:prod": { "account": "333333333333", "region": "us-east-2" }
  }
}

In CI or locally, pass a selector (e.g., configuration name) that your app uses to look up the correct context.

Environment Variables and .env Files​

Use .env files to store per-env values like table throughput, DLQ retention, API stage names.

Common patterns:

  • .env (defaults)
  • .env.dev, .env.staging, .env.prod

Your CDK code can load these with your preferred dotenv mechanism. See:

CDK Bootstrap per Account/Region​

Run once per account+region pair:

cdk bootstrap aws://<ACCOUNT_ID>/<REGION>

Examples:

cdk bootstrap aws://111111111111/us-east-1   # dev
cdk bootstrap aws://222222222222/us-east-1   # staging
cdk bootstrap aws://333333333333/us-east-2   # prod

Deploy per Environment​

nx deploy orders --configuration=dev
nx deploy orders --configuration=staging
nx deploy orders --configuration=prod

The deploy executor synthesizes and deploys to the specified AWS environment.

CI/CD Considerations​

  • Use OIDC to assume roles securely in CI.
  • Parameterize the environment via job matrices (dev/staging/prod).
  • Cache Nx/Node modules to speed up builds.

See: CI/CD Pipeline Example

Best Practices​

  • Isolation: separate accounts for dev/staging/prod.
  • Naming: include environment in resource names (e.g., orders-dev-table).
  • Policies: apply least-privilege IAM per environment.
  • Config drift: keep all env config in code; avoid manual console edits.
  • Cost controls: use smaller capacities in non-prod; enable TTL/retention where possible.