Link to staging for new Apps

💬 App Building
1
W

When I build/update an App I like to provide some endusers with a link to the App in staging. This way they can test the App fully without corrupting live-data.

WIth the classic app-builder I could add the parameters _environment=staging and _releaseVersion= to the URL. This does not seem to work voor Apps build with the new AI-powered builder.

Is there an option to point the users to the staging version of new apps?

2

Summary

In the classic app builder, appending the _environment=staging and _releaseVersion= URL parameters allowed end users to be pointed to a staging version of an app for safe testing. These parameters don't appear to work for apps built with the new AI-powered app builder, and the question is whether there's a way to send users to the staging version of a new app.

AI Response

This is a known limitation of the new app builder, not a misconfiguration. Resource environments can currently be toggled while building/previewing, but published new-builder apps fall back to production, and appending ?environment= or ?_environment= to the URL does not switch environments the way it did in classic apps. Retool's product team has acknowledged this directly and confirmed it is actively being worked on, with a planned solution (likely a code-accessible hook exposing resource environments, similar to currentUser()) expected within weeks of late September 2026. For now, the recommended approach is to continue testing against non-production data within the editor/preview, and to follow the threads below for the forthcoming fix.

Sources

:bookmark: Published Apps from App Builder doesn't support environment?
Directly corroborates that published new-builder apps ignore the ?environment=/?_environment= URL parameters and fall back to production; Retool staff confirm it's a known gap being actively addressed with a solution expected in a matter of weeks.
:bookmark: retoolContext.environment – but for the new builder
Confirms that the classic environment-switching capability (retoolContext.environment/configVars) is not yet available in the new builder and is on Retool's internal tracking for a first-class environment primitive.

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