---
title: environment
---

Typically one of `development`, `staging`, or `production`, each _environment_ may exhibit different behavior depending on configuration and template logic. For example, in a production environment you might minify and fingerprint CSS, but that probably doesn't make sense in a development environment.

  When running the built-in development server with the `hugo server` command, the environment is set to `development`. When building your project with the `hugo build` command, the environment is set to `production`. To override the environment value, use the `--environment` command line flag or the `HUGO_ENVIRONMENT` environment variable.

  To determine the current environment within a template, use the [`hugo.Environment`](/functions/hugo/environment/) function.
