Production Configuration Ownership And Rotation

Use .env.production.example as the baseline template for production deployments.

Ownership

Variable(s)	Owner	Notes
`ADMIN_API_KEY`, `OPERATOR_API_KEY`	Security + Platform	Generate strong random values, never re-use across environments.
`ENCRYPTION_KEY_BASE64`	Security	Must be a 32-byte AES key encoded in base64.
`WEBHOOK_SIGNING_SECRET`	Security + Integrations	Shared with webhook sender(s), treat as a secret.
`POSTGRES_DSN`	Platform/DBA	Must use production DB endpoint and TLS (`sslmode=require` or stronger).
`REDIS_ADDR`, `REDIS_DB`	Platform	Production Redis instance only.
`SMTP_HOST`, `SMTP_PORT`, `SMTP_USERNAME`, `SMTP_PASSWORD`, `SMTP_FROM`	Messaging Operations	Use provider-issued credentials and verified sender identity.

ADMIN_API_KEY, OPERATOR_API_KEY: rotate at least every 90 days and immediately on suspected leak.
ENCRYPTION_KEY_BASE64: rotate on incident response or key custody change; plan controlled re-encryption migration.
WEBHOOK_SIGNING_SECRET: rotate every 90 days and coordinate with sender cutover.
SMTP_PASSWORD: rotate per provider policy (recommended 60-90 days).
POSTGRES_DSN / REDIS_ADDR credentials: rotate per platform standard and after access-control changes.

When APP_ENV=production, maild fails fast at startup if required production runtime values are missing or if development defaults are used:

This guard is intentional and blocks accidental production boot with local/development defaults.