26th October 2025 — Environment Variable Centralization and Migration Status #68

build 333 — #68 — commit b93c69b

Environment configuration refactored with type-safe enum, migration system enhancements for database-driven status, and improved health monitoring.

Where to Find It

• Entire Application: Environment variable access now type-safe via enum
• System Status: Health checks reflect migration state accurately
• Migration UI: Consistent filename display across all environments

Benefits

• Type Safety: Environment variables use TypeScript enums with IDE autocomplete
• Deployment Reliability: Server starts even when NODE_ENV not explicitly set (defaults to "development")
• Consistent Migration Display: Database-driven status shows same files locally and in production
• Improved Monitoring: Health checks accurately reflect migration state for automated alerts
• Cleaner Logs: TypeScript declaration files no longer incorrectly identified as migrations
• Better Maintainability: Centralized environment variable definitions
• Database-Driven Status: Migration state purely from database, independent of environment
• Improved File Detection: Filters exclude .d.ts and .d.js files, normalize .ts/.js handling

Technical Details

Environment Variable Refactoring:

• Create Environment enum with all application environment variables
• Replace all process.env string literal access with enum references
• Add envConfig.isProduction() helper for NODE_ENV checks
• Use envConfig.booleanValue() for boolean environment variable parsing
• Move booleanOf() to shared string-utils for frontend/backend reuse
• Use existing envConfig wrappers (env, mongo.uri) where available
• Change RUN_MIGRATIONS_ON_STARTUP to SKIP_MIGRATIONS_ON_STARTUP (migrations now run by default)
• Default NODE_ENV to "development" when not set

Migration Status Improvements:

• Fix health endpoint to return 503 when migrations pending
• Update system status check to include pending migrations in health calculation
• Fix site-maintenance component to show correct operational status
• Display Status inline with Applied/Pending/Failed counts
• Add consistent vertical borders to migration table
• Replace console.log with logger in paste-detection service

Migration Filename Normalization:

• Normalize all migration filenames to .js extension for consistency
• Scan for both .ts and .js files on disk but display as .js in UI
• Check database for both .ts and .js versions when determining status
• Ensure migration status is purely database-driven, not environment-dependent
• Update simulated migration filenames to use .js extension