Ephemeral Environments for Cloud Development
On-demand, disposable development and preview environments that spin up per PR, per branch, or per task - and vanish when done
What Are Ephemeral Environments?
Disposable-by-design workspaces that are created on demand, used for a specific purpose, and automatically torn down when no longer needed.
The Core Concept
Ephemeral environments are short-lived, isolated copies of your application stack - including services, databases, and infrastructure - that exist only for the duration of a specific task. Unlike persistent staging or development servers, they are created fresh from infrastructure-as-code templates and destroyed when the task completes.
This "cattle, not pets" approach eliminates environment drift, configuration rot, and the shared-environment bottleneck that plagues traditional development workflows.
Ephemeral vs. Persistent
Long-lived, manually maintained, accumulate drift, shared across teams, become "snowflakes" over time
Short-lived, auto-provisioned, always clean, isolated per task, reproducible from code
Created by CI triggers or Git events, destroyed on merge/close/TTL expiry - no manual cleanup required
The Disposable-by-Design Philosophy
Every environment is a fresh start - no cleanup, no drift, no "it works on staging"
Create
Trigger from Git event or CI pipeline
Use
Test, review, demo, or develop in isolation
Merge
Ship changes with confidence to production
Destroy
Automatic teardown frees all resources
How CDEs Enable Ephemeral Environments
Cloud Development Environments provide the infrastructure foundation that makes ephemeral environments practical at scale.
Fast Provisioning
CDE platforms spin up full-stack environments in seconds, not minutes or hours.
- Container-based isolation
- Pre-pulled base images
- Warm pools for instant start
IaC Templates
Define your entire stack as code - reproducible, versioned, and auditable.
- Terraform workspace templates
- DevContainer configurations
- Docker Compose stacks
Prebuilds
Pre-compile dependencies and build artifacts so environments are ready instantly.
- Dependency pre-installation
- Image layer caching
- Git commit snapshots
Automated Cleanup
TTL policies and event-driven teardown prevent resource sprawl and runaway costs.
- TTL-based expiration
- Webhook-driven destroy
- Cost guardrails and limits
Common Ephemeral Environment Patterns
Different use cases call for different ephemeral environment strategies. Here are the most widely adopted patterns.
Per-PR Environments
Auto-create a full-stack environment for every pull request. QA engineers, product managers, and designers can test changes in complete isolation without blocking other PRs.
Ideal for: Code review, QA testing, automated E2E tests
Feature Branch Environments
Longer-lived ephemeral environments tied to feature branches. Developers get isolated full-stack testing without impacting shared staging. Environments persist as long as the branch is active.
Ideal for: Feature development, integration testing, long-running experiments
Demo/Staging Environments
On-demand environments for sales demos, stakeholder reviews, or user acceptance testing. Pre-loaded with sample data and configured for specific scenarios without touching shared infrastructure.
Ideal for: Sales demos, UAT, stakeholder presentations
Pair Programming Environments
Shared ephemeral workspaces for collaborative coding sessions. Both developers connect to the same environment with shared terminals, file systems, and port forwarding for real-time collaboration.
Ideal for: Code reviews, mentoring, mob programming, debugging
Incident Response Environments
Pre-configured debugging environments with production-like data for incident investigation. Spin up instantly during an outage with all observability tools, logs, and access pre-wired for rapid diagnosis.
Ideal for: Production incidents, root cause analysis, hotfix testing
CI Test Environments
Full-stack environments created exclusively for running automated test suites. E2E, integration, and performance tests run in production-like conditions without shared resource contention.
Ideal for: E2E tests, integration tests, performance benchmarks
Sandbox Environments
Sandbox environments provide request-level isolation for testing changes in production-like conditions. Unlike full ephemeral environments, sandboxes intercept and route specific traffic to isolated services, reducing resource costs by 85-90%.
Ideal for: Microservices testing, traffic shadowing, production-like validation
Tools and Platforms
The ephemeral environment ecosystem offers both specialized platforms and CDE-native solutions.
| Platform | Type | Key Strength | Per-PR | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uffizzi | Open-source | Kubernetes-native, auto per-PR | K8s-native teams | |
| Bunnyshell | SaaS | Full-stack ephemeral + remote dev | Full-stack apps | |
| Qovery | SaaS | Self-service platform on your AWS | AWS-native orgs | |
| Coder Templates | Self-hosted | Terraform-based, full infra control | Enterprise self-hosted | |
| Ona (formerly Gitpod) | SaaS / Self-hosted | Prebuild-powered from Git commits | Git-centric workflows | |
| GitHub Codespaces | SaaS | Dev containers per repo/branch | GitHub-native teams |
Uffizzi
Open-source platform that creates virtual Kubernetes clusters for each PR. Integrates with GitHub Actions and GitLab CI for automatic lifecycle management.
Bunnyshell
Full-stack ephemeral environments with built-in remote development capabilities. Auto-preview per PR with shareable URLs for stakeholder review.
Qovery
Developer self-service platform that provisions ephemeral environments on your own AWS account. Strong cost controls and environment cloning capabilities.
Coder Templates
Terraform-based workspace templates that can be parameterized for ephemeral use. Full infrastructure control with self-hosted deployment on any cloud or on-premises.
Ona (formerly Gitpod)
Prebuild-powered ephemeral workspaces that snapshot environments at every Git commit. Start coding instantly on any branch with all dependencies pre-installed.
GitHub Codespaces
Ephemeral dev containers per repository and branch. Deep GitHub integration with prebuild support, configurable machine types, and dotfiles synchronization.
Cost Optimization Strategies
Ephemeral environments can save money compared to persistent staging - but only with proper cost controls in place.
Auto-Shutdown (TTL Policies)
Set time-to-live limits so environments self-destruct after a defined period of inactivity. Typical TTL: 30-60 minutes idle, or 24-48 hours max lifetime.
Right-Sizing Resources
Define workspace classes (small, medium, large) and assign based on actual need. A PR review environment does not need the same resources as a build environment.
Scheduled Scaling
Auto-destroy all non-essential environments outside business hours. Recreate from templates when developers return. Most environments rebuild in seconds.
Shared vs. Per-Env Services
Share expensive backing services (databases, caches, message queues) across ephemeral environments using namespace isolation instead of full duplication.
Cost Monitoring and Alerting
Track per-environment and per-team costs in real time. Set budget alerts to catch runaway environments before they become expensive surprises.
Spot/Preemptible Instances
Ephemeral environments are ideal candidates for spot instances since data loss is acceptable - environments can be quickly recreated from templates.
Sandbox Environment Patterns
Organizations report 85-90% cost reduction compared to full environment duplication by using targeted sandbox patterns that isolate only changed services and route traffic at the request level.
Cost Comparison: Persistent vs. Ephemeral
Ephemeral environments pay only for active usage, not 24/7 uptime
Persistent Staging (Traditional)
- Running 24/7 regardless of usage
- One shared env = bottleneck for teams
- Manual cleanup and maintenance
- Configuration drift over time
Ephemeral (On-Demand)
- Pay only for active testing time
- Parallel environments = no bottleneck
- Automatic teardown and cleanup
- Fresh from template every time
CI/CD Integration
Ephemeral environments reach their full potential when wired into your CI/CD pipelines for automatic lifecycle management.
GitHub Actions
Trigger on pull_request events
On PR Opened
Create environment, deploy branch, post preview URL as PR comment
On Push to PR
Update the existing environment with the latest changes
On PR Closed/Merged
Tear down environment and release all resources
# .github/workflows/ephemeral-env.yml
on:
pull_request:
types: [opened, synchronize, closed]
jobs:
deploy-preview:
if: github.event.action != 'closed'
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Create Ephemeral Environment
run: |
# Deploy to ephemeral namespace
kubectl create ns pr-${{ github.event.number }}
helm install app ./chart \
-n pr-${{ github.event.number }} \
--set image.tag=${{ github.sha }}
- name: Post Preview URL
uses: actions/github-script@v7
with:
script: |
github.rest.issues.createComment({
owner: context.repo.owner,
repo: context.repo.repo,
issue_number: context.issue.number,
body: 'Preview: https://pr-${{ github.event.number }}.preview.example.com'
})
cleanup:
if: github.event.action == 'closed'
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Destroy Environment
run: |
kubectl delete ns pr-${{ github.event.number }}GitLab CI
Review Apps with auto-stop
Review Apps
Built-in feature for per-MR environments with dynamic URLs
Auto-Stop
Native environment auto-stop after configurable inactivity period
Environment Tracking
Dashboard shows all active environments with deploy history
# .gitlab-ci.yml
deploy_review:
stage: deploy
script:
- kubectl create ns review-$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_IID
- helm install app ./chart
-n review-$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_IID
--set image.tag=$CI_COMMIT_SHA
environment:
name: review/$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_IID
url: https://review-$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_IID.example.com
on_stop: stop_review
auto_stop_in: 1 week
rules:
- if: $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_IID
stop_review:
stage: deploy
script:
- kubectl delete ns review-$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_IID
environment:
name: review/$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_IID
action: stop
rules:
- if: $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_IID
when: manualE2E Tests in Ephemeral Envs
Run end-to-end test suites against isolated, production-like environments that are created fresh for each test run. No shared state contamination between test runs.
- Playwright, Cypress, or Selenium against preview URL
- Seeded test data per environment
- Parallel test execution across PRs
- Test results posted as PR status checks
Preview URL Generation
Every ephemeral environment gets a unique, shareable URL. Stakeholders click a link in the PR to see changes live without any local setup.
- Predictable URL pattern:
pr-{number}.preview.example.com - Wildcard DNS + Ingress controller
- Auto-posted as PR comment with deploy status
- Optional authentication via OAuth proxy
Webhook-Driven Environment Lifecycle
Git Event
PR opened, push, or merge triggers webhook
Controller
Environment controller receives webhook, provisions resources
Deploy
Application deployed with unique URL and DNS entry
Notify
Preview URL posted to PR, Slack, or Teams notification
Best Practices
Lessons learned from teams running ephemeral environments at scale.
Do
Set TTL policies on every environment
Environments should always have an expiration. Default to aggressive TTLs and let teams request extensions.
Use database snapshots over migrations
Restore from a snapshot for fast, consistent database state instead of running migrations from scratch each time.
Tag and track all ephemeral resources
Label every resource with PR number, branch, owner, and creation time for cost attribution and orphan detection.
Prebuild base images in CI
Build and cache your base environment images on main branch merges so ephemeral envs start from a warm snapshot.
Monitor environment count and cost
Dashboard active environments, total cost, and average lifetime. Alert on runaway counts or cost spikes.
Avoid
Environments without TTL or destroy triggers
Orphaned environments accumulate quickly and silently burn budget. Always have a destruction mechanism.
Hardcoded configuration values
URLs, ports, and service names must be dynamic. Use environment variables or service discovery for all config.
Production data in ephemeral environments
Use anonymized or synthetic seed data. Real customer data in temporary environments creates compliance and security risks.
Duplicating expensive third-party services
Mock or share expensive external dependencies (payment processors, email services) instead of creating per-env accounts.
Skipping resource limits
Without Kubernetes resource requests/limits, a single runaway environment can starve the entire cluster.
Getting Started
A practical roadmap for adopting ephemeral environments in your organization.
Containerize Your App
Ensure your application and all services have Dockerfiles and can be deployed via Helm charts or Docker Compose. This is the foundation for reproducible environments.
Choose Your Platform
Select an ephemeral environment platform based on your infrastructure (Kubernetes vs. cloud VMs), Git provider, and team size. Start with the simplest option that fits.
Wire Into CI/CD
Add pipeline steps to create environments on PR open, update on push, and destroy on merge/close. Start with a single project before rolling out to all teams.
Add Cost Controls
Implement TTL policies, resource limits, scheduled scaling, and cost monitoring from day one. It is much harder to add cost controls retroactively.
