# Environment Strategy
We operate three environments. All promotion between environments is automated through GitOps.
## Environments
| Environment | Cluster | Purpose |
|-------------|----------------|----------------------------------|
| Development | `dev-cluster` | Feature testing, integration |
| Staging | `stg-cluster` | Pre-production validation |
| Production | `prod-cluster` | Live traffic |
## Promotion Flow
1. A pull request is merged to `main`.
2. CI builds and pushes a new image tag.
3. The dev environment is updated automatically via Argo CD.
4. After passing automated tests in dev, the staging environment is updated.
5. Production promotion requires a manual approval gate in Argo CD.
## Environment-Specific Configuration
- Use Kustomize overlays per environment, not Helm value overrides.
- Scaling defaults differ per environment:
- **Dev**: `scaling.min: 1`, `scaling.max: 2`
- **Staging**: `scaling.min: 2`, `scaling.max: 5`
- **Production**: `scaling.min: 3`, `scaling.max: 10`
- Database sizes follow the same pattern: `small` for dev, `medium` for staging, `large` for production.
