# Environment [Environments](https://www.datocms.com/docs/general-concepts/primary-and-sandbox-environments.md) make it easier for your development team to **manage and maintain content structure once your content has been published**. You can think of environments like code branches: great for testing, development and pre-production environments. By default, every project has one environment, called **primary environment**, which is meant to be used for the regular editorial workflow. Additionally, multiple **sandbox environments** can be created by developers to safely test/experiment new changes in the content. Sandbox environments start out as **exact copies of one of the existing environments** (ie. the primary one). The process of creating a new sandbox starting off from an existing environment is called fork. Each environment is identified by a name (ie. `master`) and stores the following information: - Models - Records - Uploads - Plugins - Locales and timezone settings - UI Theme (colors and logo) - Global SEO settings - The content navigation bar When making changes to any of the aforementioned entities in any environment, including the primary environment, **the data in all other environments isn’t affected** and stays the same. ## Object payload id string ID of environment. Can only contain lowercase letters, numbers and dashes Example: `"main"` type string Must be exactly `"environment"`. meta.status enum Status of the environment Example: `"ready"` Show enum values creating The environment is being forked ready The environment is ready destroying The environment is being destroyed meta.fork\_completion\_percentage number The completion percentage of the fork operation (only present if the status is `creating`) Example: `95` meta.read\_only\_mode boolean Is this environment the in read-only mode because of a fast-fork? meta.created\_at date-time Date of creation meta.last\_data\_change\_at date-time Last data change meta.primary boolean Is this environment the primary for the project? meta.forked\_from string, null ID of the environment that's been forked to generate this one Example: `"main"` ## Available endpoints - [Fork an existing environment](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/environment/fork.md) - [Promote an environment to primary](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/environment/promote.md) - [Rename an environment](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/environment/rename.md) - [List all environments](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/environment/instances.md) - [Retrieve a environment](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/environment/self.md) - [Delete a environment](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/environment/destroy.md) ## Related content in "Content Management API" - [Content Management API Overview](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api.md) - [Using the JavaScript CMA client](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/using-the-nodejs-clients.md) - [API versioning](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/api-versioning.md) - [Authentication](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/authentication.md) - [Environments](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/setting-the-environment.md) - [Error codes & handling failures (CMA)](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/errors.md) - [Pagination](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/pagination.md) - [Asynchronous jobs](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/async-jobs.md) - [Technical Limits (CMA)](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/technical-limits.md) - [Record](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/item.md) - [Scheduled publication](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/scheduled-publication.md) - [Scheduled unpublishing](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/scheduled-unpublishing.md) - [Upload](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/upload.md) - [Site](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/site.md) - [Model/Block model](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/item-type.md) - [Field](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/field.md) - [Fieldset](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/fieldset.md) - [Record version](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/item-version.md) - [Upload permission](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/upload-request.md) - [Upload track](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/upload-track.md) - [Manual tags](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/upload-tag.md) - [Smart tags](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/upload-smart-tag.md) - [Upload Collection](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/upload-collection.md) - [Search Index](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/search-index.md) - [Search result](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/search-result.md) - [Search indexing activity](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/search-index-event.md) - [Environment](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/environment.md) - [Fork an existing environment](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/environment/fork.md) - [Promote an environment to primary](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/environment/promote.md) - [Rename an environment](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/environment/rename.md) - [List all environments](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/environment/instances.md) - [Retrieve a environment](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/environment/self.md) - [Delete a environment](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/environment/destroy.md) - [Maintenance mode](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/maintenance-mode.md) - [Menu Item](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/menu-item.md) - [Schema Menu Item](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/schema-menu-item.md) - [Uploads filter](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/upload-filter.md) - [Model filter](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/item-type-filter.md) - [Plugin](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/plugin.md) - [Workflow](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/workflow.md) - [Asynchronous job](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/job.md) - [Job result](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/job-result.md) - [Account](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/account.md) - [Organization](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/organization.md) - [Invitation](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/site-invitation.md) - [Collaborator](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/user.md) - [Role](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/role.md) - [API token](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/access-token.md) - [Webhook](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/webhook.md) - [Webhook call](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/webhook-call.md) - [Build trigger](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/build-trigger.md) - [Deploy activity](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/build-event.md) - [Subscription limit](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/subscription-limit.md) - [Subscription feature](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/subscription-feature.md) - [SSO Settings](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/sso-settings.md) - [SSO User](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/sso-user.md) - [SSO Group](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/sso-group.md) - [White-label settings](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/white-label-settings.md) - [Audit log event](https://www.datocms.com/docs/content-management-api/resources/audit-log-event.md)