Environments

zkao runs two public environments:

Environment	App	API base	Docs
Production	zkao.io	https://zkao.io/api/v1	docs.zkao.io
Staging	staging.zkao.io	https://staging.zkao.io/api/v1	docs.staging.zkao.io

The CLI and SDK target production by default. Staging runs ahead of production and gets new features first. Its data and tokens are separate: a production token does not work on staging.

ZKAO_URL

One environment variable, ZKAO_URL, points the CLI and SDK at an environment. It accepts any of these forms:

ZKAO_URL=staging.zkao.io
ZKAO_URL=https://staging.zkao.io
ZKAO_URL=https://staging.zkao.io/api/v1

All three resolve to https://staging.zkao.io/api/v1. A bare host gets https://. A value that already ends in /api/v1 is used as is.

The CLI’s --base-url flag and the SDK’s baseUrl option are used verbatim, with no normalization. They win over ZKAO_URL.

The next release channel

The CLI and SDK ship on two npm dist-tags:

• latest matches production.
• next matches staging. Its versions look like X.Y.Z-next.N.

Install the staging channel when you work against staging:

npm install -g @zksecurity/zkao-cli@next

Or pass --next to the install script:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zksecurity/zkao-sdk/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --next

A CLI from the next channel checks the next tag for updates, and a latest CLI checks latest.

Logging in to staging

Set ZKAO_URL when you log in:

ZKAO_URL=staging.zkao.io zkao login --project <projectId>

Each saved project remembers the base URL it was approved on. After that, you no longer need ZKAO_URL for that project.

Switching between projects and environments

zkao config show              # every saved project, with its base URL
zkao config use <projectId>   # make another saved project active

Switching to a staging project points the CLI at staging. Switching back to a production project points it at production.

To log in to the other environment, pass ZKAO_URL again. Without it, zkao login targets the active project’s environment.