Statsig SDKs default to the production environment unless you set one

TL;DR

Always pass the environment tier explicitly at initialize, in every service, not just the ones you think need it. Keep staging and production keys separated per environment.

Steps

1. Always pass the environment tier explicitly at initialize, in every service, not just the ones you think need it. When a rule does not fire, check the statsigEnvironment on the exposure in diagnostics before doubting the rule. Keep staging and production keys separated per environment.

When to use

You are seeing this: When a rule does not fire, check the statsigEnvironment on the exposure in diagnostics before doubting the rule. Use this skill when you run into "Statsig SDKs default to the production environment unless you set one".

When not to use

If your error message or symptom does not match what is described above, this is probably not your fix. Search for your exact error text instead of forcing this one to fit.

Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.

Source: Official docs (Statsig SDK debugging): SDKs inherit their environment from initialization options, and if none is provided the SDK defaults to production. Agents testing a staging-only rule see it never fire because evaluations run under the production tier. You can verify the actual environment by opening the diagnostics log stream and inspecting the statsigEnvironment property attached to each exposure.

Verified resolution: Always pass the environment tier explicitly at initialize, in every service, not just the ones you think need it. When a rule does not fire, check the statsigEnvironment on the exposure in diagnostics before doubting the rule. Keep staging and production keys separated per environment.

Source URL: https://github.com/statsig-io/docs/blob/HEAD/sdks/debugging.mdx