Environment - Attesta

The environment module detects the deployment context from environment variables, CI markers, and hostname patterns. The detected environment is used by the gate pipeline to adjust risk scores — production environments amplify risk while development environments reduce it.

Environment Enum

Classifies the deployment environment into one of four categories.

Import

from attesta.environment import Environment

Values

Member	Value	Risk Multiplier	Description
`PRODUCTION`	`"production"`	1.5x	Live production environment. Risk is amplified.
`STAGING`	`"staging"`	1.2x	Pre-production staging environment. Slight risk amplification.
`CI`	`"ci"`	1.0x	Continuous integration environment. No risk adjustment.
`DEVELOPMENT`	`"development"`	0.8x	Local development environment. Risk is reduced.

detect_environment()

Auto-detect the deployment environment using a prioritized detection chain. The ATTESTA_ENV environment variable always takes precedence. Falls back to heuristic detection from CI markers, production variables, and hostname patterns.

Import

from attesta.environment import detect_environment

Signature

def detect_environment() -> Environment

Returns: The detected (or overridden) Environment.

Detection Order

Detection uses a first-match-wins strategy:

Priority	Method	Details
1	`ATTESTA_ENV` variable	Explicit override. Set to `production`, `staging`, `ci`, or `development`.
2	CI markers	Checks `CI`, `GITHUB_ACTIONS`, `GITLAB_CI`, `JENKINS_URL`, `CIRCLECI`, `TRAVIS`, `BUILDKITE`.
3	Production markers	Checks `NODE_ENV=production`, `FLASK_ENV=production`, `DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE` containing `prod`, `RAILS_ENV=production`.
4	Hostname patterns	Matches `prod-`, `prod.` for production; `stg-`, `stg.`, `staging-`, `staging.` for staging.
5	Default	Returns `Environment.DEVELOPMENT`.

Example

from attesta.environment import detect_environment

env = detect_environment()
print(env)        # Environment.DEVELOPMENT (on a local machine)
print(env.value)  # "development"

RISK_MULTIPLIERS

A dictionary mapping environment values to risk score multipliers. Used by the gate pipeline to adjust raw risk scores based on the operational context.

Import

from attesta.environment import RISK_MULTIPLIERS

Values

RISK_MULTIPLIERS = {
    "production": 1.5,
    "staging": 1.2,
    "ci": 1.0,
    "development": 0.8,
}

Usage

from attesta.environment import detect_environment, RISK_MULTIPLIERS

env = detect_environment()
multiplier = RISK_MULTIPLIERS[env.value]

raw_score = 0.45
adjusted_score = min(1.0, raw_score * multiplier)
print(f"Environment: {env.value}, Multiplier: {multiplier}, Adjusted: {adjusted_score}")
# Development: 0.45 * 0.8 = 0.36
# Production:  0.45 * 1.5 = 0.675

Overriding the Environment

Via Environment Variable

Set the ATTESTA_ENV variable to force a specific environment regardless of auto-detection:

# Force production environment
export ATTESTA_ENV=production

# Force development environment
export ATTESTA_ENV=development

Via the @gate Decorator

Override the environment per-gate using the environment parameter:

from attesta import gate

@gate(environment="production")
def deploy(service: str) -> str:
    """Always treated as production, regardless of actual environment."""
    return f"Deployed {service}"

Via attesta.yaml

Set a default environment in the configuration file:

attesta.yaml

policy:
  default_environment: production

In CI pipelines, the CI environment variable is typically set automatically. Attesta will detect this and apply a 1.0x multiplier (no adjustment). If you want CI to be treated like production for risk scoring, set ATTESTA_ENV=production in your CI configuration.

Risk Scoring

How environment multipliers affect the final risk score

Configuration

Set default environment in attesta.yaml

​Environment Enum

​Import

​Values

​detect_environment()

​Import

​Signature

​Detection Order

​Example

​RISK_MULTIPLIERS

​Import

​Values

​Usage

​Overriding the Environment

​Via Environment Variable

​Via the @gate Decorator

​Via attesta.yaml

Risk Scoring

Configuration

Environment Enum

Import

Values

detect_environment()

Import

Signature

Detection Order

Example

RISK_MULTIPLIERS

Import

Values

Usage

Overriding the Environment

Via Environment Variable

Via the @gate Decorator

Via attesta.yaml