Glossary · Source control and deployment
Staging environment
A non-production environment used to review and test a release candidate before it reaches real visitors.
Also called: staging, preview environment, review candidate
Definition
Staging should resemble the relevant production behavior closely enough to expose integration, rendering, configuration, and workflow problems without becoming the public release.
Why it matters
A review environment gives owners and implementers a safer place to validate the exact candidate and record approval.
Common misunderstanding
Staging is not automatically identical to production; differences in data, domains, credentials, traffic, and provider behavior still matter.
Related terms
Related system family: Hosting & Release
Sources
- Deployment environments (opens in a new tab) · GitHub Docs
Last reviewed July 16, 2026