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Environment Configuration

CivStart runs in three main environments, each with its own infrastructure and configuration.

Environment Overview​

EnvironmentPurposeURLAPI URL
ProductionLive production systemhttps://civstart.ventureshttps://api.civstart.ventures
StagingPre-production testinghttps://staging.civstart.ventureshttps://api-staging.civstart.ventures
DevelopmentDevelopment and QAhttps://dev.civstart.ventureshttps://api-dev.civstart.ventures

Production​

Infrastructure​

  • ECS Cluster: civstart-production-cluster
  • Database: civstart-production-postgres
  • Redis: civstart-production-redis
  • NLB: Production Network Load Balancer

Deployment​

  • Trigger: Push to main branch
  • Approval: Manual approval required
  • Rollback: Automated rollback on health check failures

Access​

  • Admin access restricted
  • Monitoring via CloudWatch
  • Alerts to on-call team

Staging​

Infrastructure​

  • ECS Cluster: civstart-staging-cluster
  • Database: civstart-staging-postgres
  • Redis: civstart-staging-redis
  • NLB: Staging Network Load Balancer

Deployment​

  • Trigger: Push to staging branch
  • Approval: None (automatic)
  • Testing: Automated integration tests

Test Accounts​

Development​

Infrastructure​

  • ECS Cluster: civstart-dev-cluster
  • Database: civstart-dev-postgres
  • Redis: civstart-dev-redis
  • NLB: Dev Network Load Balancer

Deployment​

  • Trigger: Push to dev branch
  • Approval: None (automatic)
  • Testing: Unit tests only

Test Accounts​

Environment Variables​

Shared Variables (All Environments)​

# Clerk Authentication
CLERK_SECRET_KEY=
CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=
ADMIN_CLERK_SECRET_KEY=
ADMIN_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=

# AI/ML Services
GOOGLE_GEMINI_API_KEY=
PINECONE_API_KEY=

# Airtable Integration
AIRTABLE_API_KEY=
AIRTABLE_BASE_ID=
AIRTABLE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=

Environment-Specific Variables​

# Database (from RDS)
DATABASE_URL=

# Redis (from ElastiCache)
REDIS_URL=

# URLs
FRONTEND_URL=
BACKEND_URL=
ADMIN_URL=

Secrets Management​

All secrets are stored in AWS Secrets Manager:

  • civstart-{env}-secrets - Application secrets
  • civstart-{env}-db-password - Database password

Access via IAM roles (no hardcoded credentials).

CI/CD Pipeline​

GitHub Actions Workflow​

on:
  push:
    branches: [dev, staging, main]

Pipeline Stages​

  1. Setup Environment - Determine target environment
  2. Build & Push - Docker image to ECR
  3. Run Migrations - Database schema updates
  4. Deploy to ECS - Update service with new image
  5. Health Checks - Verify deployment success
  6. Notify - Slack/email notifications

Migration Handling​

Migration Failures

Database migrations may fail in CI/CD because RDS is in a private subnet. This is expected and secure by design.

Migrations are automatically applied when the ECS container starts up.

Monitoring & Logging​

CloudWatch Logs​

Each environment has dedicated log groups:

  • /ecs/civstart-{env}-backend
  • /ecs/civstart-{env}-frontend
  • /ecs/civstart-{env}-admin

Metrics​

  • ECS task metrics (CPU, memory)
  • RDS performance metrics
  • NLB connection metrics
  • Custom application metrics

Alerts​

Production alerts configured for:

  • High error rates (> 5%)
  • High response times (> 2s p99)
  • Database connection issues
  • ECS task failures

Database Access​

Connecting to RDS​

RDS instances are in private subnets. To access:

# Via ECS task
aws ecs run-task \
  --cluster civstart-{env}-cluster \
  --task-definition civstart-{env}-backend \
  --overrides '{"containerOverrides": [{"name": "backend", "command": ["psql", "$DATABASE_URL"]}]}'

Running Migrations​

# Via ECS task
aws ecs run-task \
  --cluster civstart-{env}-cluster \
  --task-definition civstart-{env}-backend \
  --overrides '{"containerOverrides": [{"name": "backend", "command": ["pnpm", "db:migrate:deploy"]}]}'

Deployment Best Practices​

Pre-Deployment Checklist​

  • All tests passing
  • Migrations tested locally
  • Environment variables updated
  • Secrets rotated if needed
  • Monitoring dashboards ready

Post-Deployment Checklist​

  • Health checks passing
  • No elevated error rates
  • WebSocket connections stable
  • Database connections normal
  • Test credentials working

Emergency Procedures​

Rollback Deployment​

# Get previous task definition
aws ecs describe-task-definition \
  --task-definition civstart-{env}-backend \
  --query 'taskDefinition.revision'

# Update service to previous revision
aws ecs update-service \
  --cluster civstart-{env}-cluster \
  --service civstart-{env}-backend-service \
  --task-definition civstart-{env}-backend:{previous-revision}

Database Restore​

# List snapshots
aws rds describe-db-snapshots \
  --db-instance-identifier civstart-{env}-postgres

# Restore from snapshot
aws rds restore-db-instance-from-db-snapshot \
  --db-instance-identifier civstart-{env}-postgres-restored \
  --db-snapshot-identifier {snapshot-id}

Next Steps​