Environment Configurations

This guide will walk you through the process of creating and managing Environment Configuration Templates in StackGen at a project level.

warning

Only Admins and DevOps can create and manage Environment Configuration Templates at the project level.

Environment Configuration Templates let you define default environments, variables, and state backends at the project level. These templates act as blueprints that are automatically applied to every new appStack in the project after the template is set, so you get consistent setups for development, testing, production, and other environments.

What you can configure

• Environments - Define default environments (for example, Dev, QA, Stage).
• Variables - Specify default IaC variables and environment-specific override values.
• State backend - Configure the Terraform state backend for each environment.

How templates work

Templates apply only to new appStacks. When you create an appStack after setting up the project-level template, the template is applied automatically. Existing appStacks that were created before the template was set will not have the template applied to them.

note

• Templates only - Configurations in Project Settings are blueprints. They apply only to new appStacks you create.
• Existing appStacks - Changing the project template does not update appStacks that already exist.
• Personal projects - This feature is not available for personal projects.

Role-based capabilities

Capability	Admin	DevOps	Developer
Create project-level template	Yes	Yes	No
Edit or delete project-level template	Yes	Yes	No
View project-level template	Yes	Yes	No
Modify configurations within an appStack	Yes	Yes	Yes
Add Terraform Block to override template for an existing appStack	Yes	Yes	Yes
Apply template to new appStacks (automatic)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Use in personal projects	No	No	No

note

• appStacks created before the project-level template was set do not have the template applied.
• To apply different configurations to an existing appStack after the project-level template was set, go to the appStack, click + Add New and select Terraform Block. This overrides the project-level template for that appStack only.

Where to access templates

Location	Purpose
Project Settings > Environment Configuration	Create and edit the project-level template.
appStack > Topology > Add New > Terraform Block	View and modify configurations after they have been applied to an appStack.

Create an Environment Configuration Template

Click to view

Follow these steps to create an Environment Configuration Template:

1. Open the project where you want to create the template.
2. Go to Project Settings > Environment Configuration and click + Add New Environment.
3. Enter the name of the new environment and click Add Environment.
4. Define default variables and environment-specific overrides:
   • Click + New Variable to create default variables that apply to every environment you created in the previous step. Give it a variable name and default value and click Create Variable.
   • Set environment-specific override values for these variables. These values are written to the Terraform resource files.
5. Configure the state backend for each environment:
   • Guided step - Use the guided interface for common backends (S3, Postgres, GCS, Azure RM). For example, select local as the backend type and set the path to /temp/tf.tfstate.
   • Code editor - Use the code editor for full flexibility, including options not supported in the guided step. Example S3 backend:

note

Edit behavior - If a backend was configured with the guided step, Edit Configuration opens the guided step. If it was created in the code editor, Edit Configuration opens the code editor. You can switch from the guided step to the code editor to add unsupported configurations.

terraform {
  backend "s3" {
    bucket = "test bucket"
  }
}

6. Click Done when finished.

caution

Deleting configurations - Deleting an environment configuration from project settings does not remove it from appStacks that use it. To remove it, delete it from each appStack that uses it.

Verify Environment Profiles and Variables in New appStacks

Click to view

Follow these steps to create and verify a new appStack:

After you save the project-level template, it is applied automatically when you create a new appStack.

1. Create a new appStack (for example, from scratch) and select the cloud provider.
2. Verify environments - The appStack shows all environments defined in your template (for example, Dev, QA, test one).
3. Verify variables - Click + Add New and select Terraform Block to open the Terraform configuration. In the variables tab, confirm that the default variables and their environment overrides are present.
4. Verify backend - Confirm that the state backends are copied for each environment.
5. Verify IaC - After dragging a resource (for example, an S3 bucket) onto the canvas and saving, open the IaC tab. Confirm that the environment-specific variables and state backend configuration blocks are present (for example, S3 backend for dev, local backend for test one).