Overview
Ephemeral environments are temporary, isolated environments that are automatically created for specific purposes (like feature development or testing) and destroyed when no longer needed. They provide developers with production-like environments without the cost and complexity of maintaining permanent infrastructure. Ephemeral environments (also called Preview Environments) are automatically created when you open a pull request and deleted when it’s merged or closed, giving you on-demand testing environments that mirror your production setup.How It Helps
Isolated per Pull Request
Each PR gets its own full-stack environment, created automatically and destroyed on merge or close. No shared staging environment to coordinate around.
Cost Only While Active
Environments run only for the lifetime of the PR. No idle infrastructure to pay for once it’s merged.
Mirrors Production
Same services, same configuration as production, so what you test in preview behaves the same way once deployed.
Shareable Live URL
Reviewers and stakeholders get a working URL for the PR, no local setup required to see the change running.
Prerequisites
Don’t have a cluster yet?Managed Cluster (Recommended)
Let Qovery provision and manage your Kubernetes cluster on AWS, GCP, Azure, or ScalewayTime: ~30 minutes | Maintenance: Qovery handles it
Bring Your Own Cluster (BYOK)
Connect your existing Kubernetes cluster or create your ownTime: ~20 minutes | Maintenance: You handle it
Two Approaches
Qovery offers two approaches to create and manage ephemeral environments, depending on your team’s needs and technical requirements.Simple: Preview Environments
Fully Automated with Zero ConfigurationTurn on auto-preview environment feature in Qovery and let it handle everything automatically.
- No CI/CD setup required
- Built-in Qovery feature
- Instant setup (enable and go)
- Automatic creation/destruction on PR events
- Perfect for quick feedback
- Best for teams wanting simplicity
Advanced: CI/CD Integration
Custom Workflows with E2E TestingIntegrate ephemeral environments into your existing CI/CD pipeline for complete control.
- Full workflow customization
- E2E testing automation (K6, Playwright, Cypress)
- Custom creation/deletion logic
- Integration with GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, etc.
- Advanced testing scenarios
- Best for teams requiring custom testing workflows