Environments

GreyScreen has three logical environments (dev, test, prod) and two isolated Firebase identities in practice. The gap between "test" and "production" is narrower than the names suggest; read the caveats before pointing anything at a live service.

Identity table

	dev	test	prod
Public origin	http://localhost:*	https://test.greyscreentv.com	https://greyscreentv.com, https://www.greyscreentv.com
Firebase project (per env files)	greyscreen-test-5fb86	greyscreen-test-5fb86	grey-screen-tv
Deployed test stack actually points at	—	grey-screen-tv (production)	grey-screen-tv
GCP project	grey-screen-mobile-and-web-app	grey-screen-mobile-and-web-app	grey-screen-mobile-and-web-app
GCS bucket suffix	-test	-test	-prod
Test VPS	—	82.38.44.60	production hosts

The dev and test layers share a trust domain: .env.nonprod.local is common to both, with .env.development.local or .env.test.local overlaid for endpoint differences. Production loads .env.production.local only. Only .env.template is tracked; the .local files are gitignored and excluded from Docker builds.

APP_ENV is not NODE_ENV. APP_ENV selects the environment contract; NODE_ENV selects build/runtime behaviour. The APIs validate both at boot.

The two traps

Trap 1 — the test stack uses the production Firebase project

vps-reverse-proxy/stacks/greyscreentv-test/docker-compose.yml currently points the test APIs' .env.test.local at grey-screen-tv. Only the GCS buckets are separate. Isolation comes from RESOLUTION_CONSUMER_DISABLED=true (so the test API does not become a second claim consumer) and from the Compose vps profile (which keeps the test worker from racing the production worker). It is not a separate database.

Consequences:

• A write made through the test stack is a production write.
• Do not run destructive tests against the test stack.
• The test API's APP_ENV may be test while its Firebase key validates against prod; the validation rules follow the project the key names.

Trap 2 — the website picks Firebase by branch

gstv-website/src/Firebase/FirebaseConfig.js is not env-driven. On main it points at grey-screen-tv; on test it points at greyscreen-test-5fb86. public/firebase-messaging-sw.js carries the same project. The native apps follow a build-variant equivalent in app.config.ts.

A wholesale merge of test into main would silently regress production identity. Releases are cherry-picks. See Branch strategy.

Payments by environment

Provider	dev/test	prod	Notes
Stripe	sk_test_… required	sk_live_… required	Boot fails on a prefix mismatch. Price IDs do not encode mode; confirm in the Stripe dashboard.
Flutterwave	production merchant	production merchant	There is no sandbox merchant. Treat every mobile-money charge as real.

gstv-website/.env.production carries a live publishable key while its comments still mention a sandbox. The comments are stale; do not "restore sandbox keys" based on them.

Ports

Service	dev	test / prod
gstv-website	5173	80 (container)
greyscreen-webview	5174	80 (container)
gstv-admin-web	5173 (does not run at the same time as the website)	80 (container)
gstv-customer-api	3001	3000
gstv-admin-api	3003	3003
gstv-multimedia	8000 + 8080 + 1935	same
Gateway	—	80 / 443

The webview's dev port is deliberately different from the website's because Stripe return URLs must be unambiguous.

What runs where

Component	dev	test	prod
SPAs	Vite dev server	Static nginx container	Static nginx container
APIs	npm run dev	Docker image, :test	Docker image, :prod
Multimedia	Usually not run locally	Container with gcsfuse	Container with gcsfuse
Worker	Only with explicit intent	Compose vps profile, usually off	GCE VM, created on demand
Native apps	Expo dev client	EAS test/preview variant	EAS production build

Validation at boot

Both APIs validate their environment and refuse to start on mismatch. The list is not negotiable; expect the process to exit rather than serve with a half-configured identity.

• A readable service-account JSON.
• Firebase project matching the environment (greyscreen-test-5fb86 for dev/test, grey-screen-tv for prod).
• Stripe secret key prefix matching the environment.
• Stripe webhook secret and price IDs; Flutterwave keys.
• ORIGIN / CORS_ORIGIN not * in production.
• A valid APP_ENV and NODE_ENV.
• Admin API only: bucket suffixes, RTDB host/project match, and RESOLUTION_CONSUMER_DISABLED not set to true in production.

The customer API warns about a weak SECRET_KEY; the admin API does not block ADMIN_AUTH_DISABLED=true in production. Treat both as open items, not as safe defaults.

Public path layout

Both public origins expose the same paths:

Path	Upstream	Prefix stripped
/	website	no
/webview/	webview SPA	yes
/admin/	admin SPA	yes
/api/customer/	customer API	yes
/api/admin/	admin API	yes
/stream/	multimedia	yes

Everything else on the host is routed by domains.json. Do not assume a new service is public until a route exists in that file and generate.sh has run.

Next: Running locally.