Avoid Hardcoding API URLs — Use Environment Variables Properly

Many developers directly write API URLs in code like this:

const API_URL = "https://api.production.com";

This creates problems when switching between environments (local, staging, production).

Better approach:

Use environment variables:

For Next.js:
process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL

For Node.js:
process.env.API_URL

Example:

const API_URL = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL;

Benefits:

• Easy environment switching
• Cleaner code
• Better security (no secrets in code)

Pro tip:
Never expose sensitive keys using NEXT_PUBLIC — only use it for public data.