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Configuration promotion takes configuration that already works in one environment, such as TEST, and applies it to another, such as PROD, so you do not rebuild it by hand in each environment. You export the source environment’s configuration to a file. You then import that file in the target environment, review every difference it would make, and apply the changes you tick. Each promotion is recorded in the target environment’s history. Open Admin settings → General → Configuration promotion. The page has four tabs:

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How a promotion works

1

Export from the source environment

Choose the configuration types to include and export them. The file downloads straight away.
2

Import the file in the target environment

Every difference between the file and the target environment is listed as a change to create, update or delete. Changes that cannot be applied yet are marked Blocked with the reason. Nothing is written until you apply.
3

Resolve what blocks

Map user group names the target does not have to the groups it does have, and create anything that has to exist first, such as a secret value.
4

Choose and apply

Tick the changes to apply, confirm, and add a comment such as a change request reference. The target environment’s configuration is saved as a version first.
5

Check the result

The result shows what was applied. History keeps the record, and Environment status shows anything changed directly in the environment since.
The file is the only thing that travels, and the environments are never connected directly. To promote DEV → TEST → PROD, export from DEV and import in TEST, then export from TEST and import in PROD. Configuration is matched by name, not by internal ID, so a document type or keyword type is recognized in each environment even though its ID differs. The one exception is script code, which is copied as written. A script that uses an ID from the source environment is flagged for you to check; see changes left out until you tick them. Configuration is fixed forward. No step restores an earlier version. To change what a promotion applied, change it in the source environment and promote again.

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What a promotion covers

The Export tab groups the configuration types as follows. A type appears only if that part of the product is available in the environment. For example, workflow types need workflows to be available.

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What a promotion never moves

Some configuration stays in its environment by design:
  • User groups and their members. A promotion never creates, renames, deletes or copies a user group. References to groups are matched by name, and a name the target does not have blocks the change until you map it with a reference rule. Rights that belong to promoted configuration do travel: document type access, Caseflow class access, template user groups and application permission grants. Privileges set on the group itself stay with the group.
  • Secret values. Script secrets and workflow secrets travel as names only. Set the value in the target environment by hand.
  • Credentials in workflow environment variables. A variable whose value looks like a credential is exported without its value. Examples are a value containing a password, key, secret, token or shared access signature, or a URL with a user name and password in it.
  • Data. Documents, keyword values, autofill values, Caseflow objects and users are not configuration and are never promoted.
  • Storage and file prerequisites. Disk groups, file types, note types and folder types must already exist in the target. A change that needs a missing one is blocked until you create it there.
  • Environment-specific AI settings. AI model selection and AI rate limits are set in each environment.
  • Personal searches and unpublished work. Only shared saved searches travel. For scripts and workflows, only published versions travel.
  • Settings maintained outside Nobly Insight. Password rules and the rights to create form letters are neither compared nor copied.
Values that are often different on purpose, such as addresses and connection details in workflow environment variables, do travel. They are held back for you to check; see changes left out until you tick them.

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Permissions

To open Configuration promotion, you need Keyword configuration administration (keyword-configuration.admin). Without it, the menu entry is hidden. The same permission is required to export, preview and apply. On top of that, promotion asks for the same permissions as the admin screen of each configuration type:
  • Seeing a type decides what you can export and import. When you export all types, types you cannot view are left out of the file. When you pick a type you cannot view, the export is refused and names the permission you are missing. A file that holds a type you cannot view is refused on import.
  • Changing a type decides what you can apply. A change you may view but not make arrives Blocked and names the permission it needs.
  • Adding or removing reference rules also needs Manage user groups.
  • Adding or removing kept differences also needs permission to change and delete the type concerned, or every type for an entry that applies to any type.
  • History and environment status show every promotion, but list the individual changes only for types you can view.
See Application permissions for what each permission grants on its own.

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Before you begin

  • Confirm the feature is available in both environments. Configuration promotion is enabled per tenant. It is not available in environments whose database runs on Oracle. If the page is missing, contact your consultant team.
  • Run the same release in both environments. The file records the release it was exported from, but the import does not check it. A configuration type the target does not recognize makes it refuse the file.
  • Prepare what the target must already have. That includes its user groups, the disk groups and file types your document types use, and the secret values your scripts and workflows read. Also decide how group names in the source map to groups in the target.
  • Handle the export file as sensitive. It holds script code, reporting queries and workflow environment variable values that do not look like credentials. Store and share it the way you store configuration.
Do not edit an export file. The import checks every entry against the file’s own fingerprints and refuses a file that has been changed after export. Export again instead.

Promote configuration

Export from the source environment, review every difference in the target, and apply the changes you choose.

Group mappings and kept differences

Map user group names between environments and record what an environment keeps different on purpose.