GitHub Environments
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
GitHub Environments are like VIP rooms for your deployments. Each environment (staging, production) has its own secrets, protection rules, and approval gates. Want to require manager approval before deploying to prod? Environments handle that. It's access control for your deploy pipeline.
Real Talk
GitHub Environments are deployment targets with configurable protection rules, secrets, and variables. They support required reviewers, wait timers, branch restrictions, and deployment branches. Environment secrets override repository secrets, enabling per-environment configuration.
When You'll Hear This
"Production environment requires two approvals before the deploy job runs." / "Each environment has its own database URL and API keys."
Related Terms
Deployment Protection Rules
Deployment Protection Rules are the bouncers at your production club.
GitHub Actions
GitHub Actions is CI/CD built right into GitHub. Push code, run tests, deploy — all from YAML files in your repo. No separate CI server needed.
Workflow Dispatch
Workflow Dispatch is the 'run this manually' button for GitHub Actions. Instead of waiting for a push or PR, you click a button and pass it inputs.