Real-Time Config Without a Restart: From Environment Variables to a Database-Backed ConfigManager
Environment variables are read once, at boot — changing a setting means a redeploy and a process restart. For any long-running service that can't afford a bounce, that's a problem. Here's how to move from env-var config to a database-backed ConfigManager backed by PostgreSQL and Redis, so settings update live and the process picks them up without stopping — including the parts that bite: consistency, validation, failure modes, and what should never live in a config table.