Setting Up Staging and Production Environments in Porter

Last updated: February 6, 2026

Environment Setup Options

When setting up staging and production environments in Porter, you have two main options:

  1. Single Cluster, Multiple Applications: Create separate applications for dev/staging/production within the same cluster. This is the recommended approach for most users as it's more cost-effective.

  2. Multiple Clusters: Set up separate clusters for each environment. This option is typically only necessary for strict isolation due to security or compliance requirements.

Implementing CI/CD for Staging and Production

To implement a CI/CD pipeline that deploys to staging before production:

  1. Set up your GitHub repository with a staging branch and a main (production) branch.

  2. Create separate applications for staging and production in your Porter cluster.

    1. Configure your staging application to deploy from the staging branch.

    2. Configure your production application to deploy from the main branch.

  3. When ready to deploy:

    • Push changes to the staging branch to deploy to your staging environment.

    • Once tested and approved, merge the staging branch into main to deploy to production.

For more detailed information on deploying from GitHub, refer to our documentation on deploying from a GitHub repo and how to build an app.

Preview Environments

Porter also offers preview environments, which allow you to test changes before deploying to production. These can be useful for reviewing pull requests or testing feature branches.

Logging and Monitoring

Porter provides built-in logging and monitoring capabilities:

  • Logging: Out-of-the-box logging with 7-day retention.

  • Monitoring: Built-in monitoring with 30-day retention.

For more robust logging, monitoring, and longer retention periods, Porter offers several add-ons:

  • Datadog: Comprehensive logging and monitoring solution.

  • Mezmo: Advanced log management and analysis.

  • Grafana: A cost-effective option deployed to your cluster for visualization and monitoring.

  • New Relic: Application performance monitoring and log management.

These add-ons can be easily configured through the Add-ons menu in the Porter dashboard.

For more information on observability options in Porter, check our observability documentation.