Choosing preview vs environment

Decide which action fits your deployment model.

Not sure which integration fits? Start here.

Choose preview for short lived pull request deploys. Choose environment for stable targets you keep around.

Side by side

Question	preview	environment
How long does the target live?	Only for the life of a pull request	Across many pull requests and deploys
How is the target managed?	The action records a build per commit. When Releases are enabled, each PR gets its own preview environment	You declare the environment once in Product settings, and each run records the commit as a release on it
Which URL does Duku explore?	The resolved PR preview URL, or exploration-url if you pass one	The URL the environment declares
Which triggers fit best?	pull_request	push, schedule, workflow_dispatch, and pull_request into a protected branch
Typical examples	Vercel previews, Netlify previews, branch deploys	Staging, production canary, customer demo environment, and PR gating against a stable environment

Rule of thumb

If you would delete the target when the pull request closes, use preview.

If the target survives across many pull requests, use environment.

If you want to gate a PR by exploring a stable environment, environment on pull_request into a protected branch is a supported mode.

Good defaults

• Start with Quickstart: preview action for PR based deploy previews.

• Start with Quickstart: environment action for staging and nightly checks.

• Use Configuration reference when you need to override URL resolution.