Need environment-based feature access

Use environment-based feature access by checking the current environment at runtime and allowing or hiding features accordingly.

Common pattern

Define environments such as:

• development
• staging
• production

Then gate features with logic like:

• Enabled in dev only
• Enabled in staging + dev
• Enabled for specific users in production

Example

const env = process.env.NODE_ENV;

const canUseFeatureX =
  env === "development" || env === "staging";

More flexible approach: feature flags

Store feature access in config:

const featureFlags = {
  development: { newUI: true, betaAPI: true },
  staging: { newUI: true, betaAPI: false },
  production: { newUI: false, betaAPI: false },
};

const env = process.env.NODE_ENV || "development";
const canUseNewUI = featureFlags[env]?.newUI ?? false;

Best practices

• Don’t rely on environment checks alone for security-sensitive access.
• Use server-side enforcement for protected features.
• Keep env-based access in a centralized config file.
• Prefer feature flags if you need gradual rollout.

If you want, I can give you:

1. a Node.js example,
2. a React example, or
3. a database-backed feature flag setup.