micsapp Clay Multi-Environment Setup
Overview
Configure Clay across development, staging, and production environments with isolated API keys, environment-specific settings, and proper secret management.
Prerequisites
- Separate Clay API keys per environment
- Secret management solution (environment variables, Vault, or cloud secrets)
- CI/CD pipeline with environment-aware deployment
- Application with environment detection logic
Environment Strategy
| Environment | Purpose | API Key Source | Settings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Development | Local development | .env.local |
Debug enabled, relaxed limits |
| Staging | Pre-production testing | CI/CD secrets | Production-like settings |
| Production | Live traffic | Secret manager | Optimized, hardened |
Instructions
Step 1: Create Configuration Structure
Create config/clay/ with base.ts (shared defaults), per-environment override files, and an index.ts resolver.
Step 2: Define Base and Environment Configs
Base config sets timeout (30s), retries (3), and cache (5 min TTL). Dev disables cache and enables debug. Prod extends timeout to 60s, retries to 5, and cache TTL to 10 min.
Step 3: Implement Environment Detection
Detect environment from NODE_ENV and VERCEL_ENV. Throw if API key is missing for the detected environment.
Step 4: Configure Secret Management
Store keys in .env.local (dev), GitHub Environment Secrets (staging/prod), or cloud secret managers (AWS/GCP). Reference in CI workflows per environment.
Step 5: Add Startup Validation
Use Zod to validate config at startup, ensuring API key is set, environment is valid, and timeout is positive.
For detailed TypeScript implementations and CI workflow configs, load the reference guide:
Read(${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/implementation-guide.md)
Error Handling
| Issue | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Wrong environment | Missing NODE_ENV | Set environment variable in deployment |
| Secret not found | Wrong secret path | Verify secret manager configuration |
| Cross-env data leak | Shared API key | Use separate keys per environment |
| Config validation fail | Missing field | Add startup validation with Zod schema |
Resources
Next Steps
For deployment, see clay-deploy-integration.
Output
- Configuration files or code changes applied to the project
- Validation report confirming correct implementation
- Summary of changes made and their rationale
See deployment implementation details for output format specifications.
Examples
Basic usage: Apply clay multi env setup to a standard project setup with default configuration options.
Advanced scenario: Customize clay multi env setup for production environments with multiple constraints and team-specific requirements.