How to use NODE_ENV — Intermediate

Misc / Other Development workflow

Switch behavior between development (verbose logs, pretty output) and production (structured logs, no secrets in responses).

Learn: NODE_ENV signals runtime context. Development favors readable logs; production favors performance and security (no stack traces to clients, stricter log levels).

Supplementary examples

Branch config in knexfile

module.exports = {
  development: { connection: process.env.DATABASE_URL, ... },
  production: { connection: process.env.DATABASE_URL, pool: { min: 2, max: 10 }, ... },
};

Course example

// config/logger.js
const isDev = process.env.NODE_ENV !== "production";

module.exports = pino(
  isDev
    ? { transport: { target: "pino-pretty" } }
    : { level: process.env.LOG_LEVEL || "info" }
);

Additional references & examples

Node.js: process.env
How Node exposes environment variables at runtime.
Express: Production best practices
Performance, security, and deployment recommendations.