Environment Levels

Unqork organizations typically operate across multiple environment levels, also called environment stages. Each level serves a distinct purpose in the application development lifecycle, and resources are promoted through them in sequence before reaching end-users in Production.

The standard progression is: Staging → Quality Assurance (QA) → User Acceptance Testing (UAT) → Production. An optional Pre-Production level may be added between UAT and Production. Client leads determine how many environment levels to use when developing a customer application.

Important: All non-production environment levels host test data only. Live client data is stored in Production only.

Staging

Staging is where Creators configure and update applications, beginning the promotion pipeline before resources move to QA for testing. Staging is an internal environment level and part of Unqork's cloud infrastructure, offering both a Designer and a preview interface.

Codebase: Staging

Important: This non-production environment level hosts test data only.

Quality Assurance (QA)

QA is where Creators test and verify processes and artifacts, and ensure applications are built using best practices. QA is an internal environment level and part of Unqork's cloud infrastructure, offering both a Designer and a preview interface.

Codebase: QA

Important: This non-production environment level hosts test data only.

User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

UAT is where Creators and end-users can view the latest build and test the application's end-user experience before it reaches Production. UAT is an internal environment level and part of Unqork's cloud infrastructure, offering both a Designer and a preview interface.

Codebase: UAT

Important: This non-production environment level hosts test data only.

Pre-Production (Optional)

Pre-Production is an optional environment level that sits between UAT and Production. It uses the Production codebase, making it the closest non-Production environment to the live application. Organizations that require an additional validation step before Production use this level.

Codebase: Production

Important: Pre-Production is not included by default. Contact an Unqork representative to learn more about adding Pre-Production to the environment.

Production

Production is the live environment and the only level where end-users access the application and where live client data is stored. Applications promoted to Production become the production application accessible to end-users through a URL.

Important: Development in Production is blocked at the platform level. Draft operations (creating, editing, or deleting resources) are not available in Production environments. All changes must begin in Staging and move through the promotion pipeline.

See Application Lifecycle for Production rules, common mistakes, and recovery steps. See Application (Production) for more on what end-users interact with in Production.

Promoting Resources

Resources move between environment levels through the Promote action, available to Creators with the appropriate permissions. See Creator Role Administration for permission details.

Important: Promoting a resource does not automatically promote its dependencies. Ensure that all services, styles, and other resources a module depends on are also promoted to the target environment before promoting the module.

Environment Configuration

Each environment level has its own independent configuration, including authentication settings, session management, security policies, and integrations. Configuration is managed in Environment Administration and does not transfer between environments when resources are promoted.