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Overview

Environments let you organize variables into named groups — such as Production, Staging, or Local Dev — so your tests can use different configurations depending on the context they run in. Each environment holds a set of key-value variables that your tests can reference at runtime. Variables can be marked as sensitive to protect secrets like API keys and passwords.

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Creating an Environment

1

Navigate to Environments

Click Environments in the sidebar.
2

Click New

Click the + New button in the toolbar.
3

Enter details

Provide a Name (e.g., Production, Staging) and an optional Description to help your team understand what this environment is for.
4

Create

Click Create. The new environment appears in the table and opens automatically.

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Managing Variables

Click any environment row to open its detail drawer, where you can add, edit, search, and delete variables.

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Adding Variables

1

Enter name and value

Type a variable Name and Value in the form at the top of the drawer.
2

Mark as sensitive (optional)

Toggle Sensitive if the value contains a secret (API key, password, token). Sensitive values are encrypted and masked in the UI.
Once a variable is marked as sensitive, it cannot be changed back. The value will be hidden and only accessible by your tests at runtime.
3

Add more rows (optional)

Click + Add Variable to add multiple variables at once before saving.
4

Save

Click Save to store all new variables.

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Editing Variables

Click the pencil icon on any variable row to open inline editing. You can change the name, value, or toggle the sensitive flag (for non-sensitive variables only).

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Deleting Variables

Click the trash icon on any variable row. A confirmation dialog will appear before the variable is permanently removed.

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Sensitive Variables

Sensitive variables provide an extra layer of protection for secrets:
BehaviorDetail
Masked in UIDisplayed as •••••••• with a lock icon.
Hidden from APIThe get endpoint returns null for sensitive values.
IrreversibleOnce marked sensitive, a variable cannot be changed back.
Editable valueYou can update the value of a sensitive variable, but you won’t see the current value.
Auto-scrubbed from tracesWhen using --env, sensitive values are automatically redacted from Playwright traces before upload.
Always mark API keys, passwords, database credentials, and tokens as Sensitive.

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Automatic Trace Scrubbing

When you run tests with stably test --env <name>, any variable marked Sensitive is automatically scrubbed from Playwright traces before they are uploaded to Stably. You do not need to configure sensitiveValues in your playwright.config.ts — the CLI handles it for you. This means the simplest way to protect secrets in traces is:
  1. Add your secrets as variables on this page and mark them as Sensitive.
  2. Run tests with --env:
stably test --env Staging
That’s it — sensitive values are redacted automatically.
If you need to scrub additional values that are not stored in a Stably Environment (e.g., locally defined secrets), you can also pass them manually via the sensitiveValues option in the reporter config. See Stably Test Reporter — Sensitive Data Scrubbing for details.

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Default Environment

You can set a default environment for your project. The default environment is automatically used by scheduled runs and cloud executions when no specific environment is selected. To set a default, click the star icon next to an environment in the list, or use the Set as Default option in the environment detail drawer.

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Using Environments from the CLI

The --env flag lets you load a named environment’s variables directly from Stably when running CLI commands. This removes the need to manage local .env files — variables are fetched securely from the Stably API at runtime. 
# Load variables from your "Staging" environment
stably test --env Staging

# Works with all CLI commands
stably create "login test" --env Production
stably --env "Local Dev"
The CLI fetches all variables from the named environment and injects them into process.env for your tests. Variables marked as Sensitive are automatically scrubbed from Playwright traces — see Automatic Trace Scrubbing above.
The --env flag requires authentication. Set STABLY_API_KEY and STABLY_PROJECT_ID, or run stably login first.

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Variable Precedence

When using the CLI, variables can come from multiple sources. They are resolved in the following order, from lowest to highest priority:
PrioritySourceDescription
1 (lowest)process.envSystem environment variables and shell exports
2--env-fileLocal .env files loaded via --env-file path
3--envRemote environment variables fetched from Stably
4 (highest)Stably internalsSTABLY_API_KEY, STABLY_PROJECT_ID
If the same variable name exists in multiple sources, the higher-priority source wins. For example, a BASE_URL defined in your --env Staging environment will override the same variable from a local --env-file .env file.
You can combine --env and --env-file in the same command. Use --env-file for local overrides and --env for shared team configuration stored in Stably.

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Loading from a Local .env File

You can also load variables from a local file using the --env-file flag: 
# Load from a specific file
stably test --env-file .env.staging

# Load multiple files (later files override earlier ones)
stably test --env-file .env --env-file .env.local

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Downloading as .env

Click Download .env in the environment detail drawer to export all variables as a .env file. Non-sensitive variables include their full values, while sensitive variables appear as empty placeholders.
Sensitive variable values are not included in the download. You will need to fill them in manually.

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Bulk Import

Click Bulk Import to import variables from a .env file into an environment. This is useful for migrating existing local configurations into Stably.