Environments

CMDS runs in three separate environments — Test, Demo, and Live — each serving a different purpose. Understanding what each one is for will help you know which one to log in to and what you can expect when you do.

Why three environments?

Running CMDS as a single "one size fits all" system would be risky. New features could affect real learners mid-course; a developer testing a change could accidentally touch live records; there'd be nowhere safe to practice before rolling something out.

Separating the three jobs — building, previewing, and running — gives each its own space:

• Developers can build and break things without consequence.
• You can preview new features and practice workflows before they affect your people.
• Your real learners work in a stable environment with their real data.

All three environments run the same software. What differs is the audience, the data, and how stable things are.

Test

For the development team. This is the workspace where our developers build and validate new features. Code changes appear here first, often several times a day. Data resets frequently and nothing here is considered permanent.

You generally won't be invited to Test unless you're actively working with our team on a feature or debugging something. It's noisy, experimental, and not meant for customer work.

Demo

For you to preview and practice. Demo is where each release lands about a week before it goes Live. If you want to see a new feature before your learners do, or rehearse a training program, or explore a configuration change safely, Demo is the place.

Demo uses a separate dataset from Live — nothing you do here affects your real users, and nothing they do affects you. It's a safe sandbox where you can poke around, make mistakes, and learn.

Tip: check What's new in CMDS to see when each release will appear in Demo.

Live

For your real users. Live is the production environment your learners, validators, and administrators use every day. It holds your real data — completions, certificates, registrations — and it's the environment your reports and integrations pull from.

Live is the most stable environment. Updates only arrive after a release has spent a week in Demo, giving our team and yours time to catch anything that needs attention before real users see it.

Quick comparison

Environment	Audience	Data	Stability
Test	Development team	Throwaway	Low
Demo	You, for previewing & practice	Safe sandbox	Medium
Live	Your real learners	Real data	High

Which one do I log in to?

• Doing your normal work? → Live
• Want to try a new feature, practice a workflow, or test a setting? → Demo
• Working with our development team on a specific issue? → Test (we'll point you there)

If you're unsure, start with Live.