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process.env.NODE_ENV

The NODE_ENV environment variable (process.env.NODE_ENV) is a widespread convention used by tools to distinguish between development and production environments.

In development, make sure process.env.NODE_ENV is one of:

// In development:
process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development' // ✅
process.env.NODE_ENV === 'dev'         // ✅
process.env.NODE_ENV === ''            // ✅
process.env.NODE_ENV === undefined     // ✅

In production, it should be any other value.

It's important to respect this convention: many tools run erroneously otherwise.

You can run $ NODE_ENV='production' node server/index.js to set a correct NODE_ENV value for production.

During build ($ vike build and $ vike prerender), the process.env.NODE_ENV value is automatically set to 'production'.

See also

• Node.js Docs - The difference between development and production

  While the process.env.NODE_ENV convention was introduced by Node.js, it's used by tools regardless of whether you use Node.js. Thus, make sure to follow the convention even in non-Node.js environments.

• Stack Overflow - What is NODE_ENV and how to use it in Express?
• ❌ Wrong setup