# Environments ## What do environments do? In Formsort, **environments** are spaces you can deploy your variants to for different purposes, and the variant environment it is deployed to will correspond to the environment set up in [integrations](https://docs.formsort.com/integrations/integration-reference). For example, you want to test the changes your team is making to a variant in a mocked "live" environment, but also do not want these changes available to your users. In this case you'll want to set up a **staging** environment to run testing. First, you'd configure the staging environment endpoints (see **editing environments** below) to make sure you can receive test answers; then, you'll deploy your variant to the staging environment. {% hint style="info" %} Non-production environments are only available to clients that are on the [Enterprise](https://formsort.com/pricing/) plan. Enerprise clients will by default have access to two environments: **production** and **staging**, plus the option to create as many as are necessary**.** {% endhint %} * **Production** should always be used for the "live" version of a flow. [Flowstarts](https://docs.formsort.com/flow-variant-management#flow-starts) are counted when users *load and interact with* flows deployed to the **production** environment. * **Staging** can be used to integrate with mock or test versions of your integrations, to create a production-like version of a flow that only talks to non-production systems. This is ideal for preventing production data contamination. It is optional to use staging, but for complex forms it is useful to have. **Flowstarts** do not count in this environment. * You can [create new environments](#creating-new-environments) if you need them. **Flowstarts** do not count in any new environments created. Test away! ## Editing environments Environments are defined per flow, and are shared across all [variants](https://docs.formsort.com/flow-variant-management#variants) of that flow, to ensure data integrity between variants. From the flow index page, the **Integrations** tab will show the environments editor for your integrations.

Here it is possible to edit all aspects of integrations: * create a new integration environment (e.g. create a "dev" environment) * configure setup for a new integration target * make updates to existing integration targets Since adjustments are made on a per-environment basis, your production environment will likely have a different integration configuration than your staging environment. ### Creating new environments Clicking **Edit...** on the top right of the environment editor shows a list of the current environments and allows the addition of new environments. You will see that a **production** and **staging** environment are added by default. Click **+Add environment** if you'd like to create a new environment. You can also **delete** environments in this menu.

Once you've added a new environment, you will see it's availability in the dropdown list of environments.

Newly-created dev environment is available.

### Saving and propagating changes When changes have been made to any of the integrations, you will be prompted to save them, regardless of which environment you are in.

### Deploying your variants to different environments After saving the changes you've made to your integrations, your live variants need to be **redeployed** to the matching environment so that the changes can be propagated to your flow.

For instance, if integration changes have been made in your **staging** environment, make sure to deploy or redeploy any variants you are using to **staging**.

When you're ready to test, proceed to [Loading different environments](https://docs.formsort.com/publishing-and-deployment/environments/setting-the-environment). Happy testing!