Windsurf Multi-Environment Setup

Overview

Configure Windsurf consistently across team members, projects, and deployment contexts. Windsurf is an IDE, not a cloud API -- "multi-environment setup" means standardizing AI behavior, workspace configuration, and Cascade context across your team.

Prerequisites

• Windsurf IDE installed on developer machines
• Shared git repository
• Team agreement on coding standards per service

Tool Use

• Use Read to inspect only the repository files and configuration needed for the request.
• Use Write only for a new artifact the user requested; never write credentials or unreviewed production configuration.
• Use Edit for bounded, reviewable changes and preserve unrelated user work.

Instructions

Step 1: Per-Project Cascade Rules

<!-- .devin/rules/project.md - committed to each service repo -->

# Project: PaymentService

## Stack
- Language: TypeScript (strict)
- Framework: Fastify v4
- Database: PostgreSQL with Drizzle
- Testing: Vitest
- Queue: BullMQ for async jobs

## Architecture Rules
- All handlers in src/routes/ — never business logic
- Business logic in src/services/ only
- Database queries in src/repositories/ only
- Use Result<T, E> pattern for errors, never throw in services
- PCI-sensitive data only in src/pci/ (encrypted at rest)

## Naming Conventions
- Route handlers: GET/POST/PUT/DELETE prefix
- Service methods: verb + noun (createPayment, findOrder)
- Repository methods: DB operations (findById, upsert)

Step 2: Team IDE Settings Template

// .windsurf/settings.json - committed to repo
{
  "codeium.indexing.excludePatterns": [
    "node_modules/**", "dist/**", ".next/**",
    "coverage/**", "*.min.js", "**/*.map", "**/*.lock"
  ],
  "codeium.autocomplete.enable": true,
  "editor.formatOnSave": true,
  "editor.defaultFormatter": "biomejs.biome",
  "typescript.tsdk": "node_modules/typescript/lib"
}

Step 3: Monorepo Multi-Service Setup

monorepo/
  services/
    auth/
      .devin/rules/project.md        # Auth context: JWT, OAuth, session management
      .codeiumignore         # Exclude auth secrets directory
    payments/
      .devin/rules/project.md        # Payments context: Stripe, PCI compliance
      .codeiumignore         # Exclude PCI data directories
    notifications/
      .devin/rules/project.md        # Notifications: queues, email templates
      .codeiumignore
  .windsurf/
    settings.json            # Shared IDE settings
    rules/
      shared-patterns.md     # trigger: always_on
    workflows/
      deploy-service.md      # /deploy-service workflow

Key practice: Each developer opens their service directory as the workspace, NOT the monorepo root. This gives Cascade focused context and fast indexing.

Step 4: Environment-Specific Workflow Rules

<!-- .devin/rules/deployment-context.md -->
---
trigger: glob
globs: deploy/**, scripts/deploy-*, .github/workflows/deploy-*
---
## Deployment Rules
- Target: AWS ECS on us-east-1
- Container registry: 123456789.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
- Secrets: AWS Secrets Manager (prefix: myapp/{environment}/)
- Never hardcode environment-specific values
- All environment config via ENV vars, not config files
- Staging deploys from develop branch, production from main

Step 5: Onboarding Script

#!/bin/bash
# scripts/setup-windsurf.sh
set -euo pipefail

echo "Setting up Windsurf for this project..."

# Verify Windsurf installation
windsurf --version || { echo "Install Windsurf: https://windsurf.com/download"; exit 1; }

# Install recommended extensions
windsurf --install-extension esbenp.prettier-vscode
windsurf --install-extension dbaeumer.vscode-eslint

# Disable conflicting extensions
windsurf --disable-extension github.copilot 2>/dev/null || true
windsurf --disable-extension tabnine.tabnine-vscode 2>/dev/null || true

# Verify configuration
[ -f ".devin/rules/project.md" ] || echo "WARNING: .devin/rules/project.md not found"
[ -f ".codeiumignore" ] || echo "WARNING: .codeiumignore not found"

echo ""
echo "Setup complete."
echo "IMPORTANT: Open your service directory (not monorepo root) for best Cascade performance."
echo "Example: windsurf services/payments/"

Step 6: Per-Environment MCP Configuration

// ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json
// Developers can configure environment-specific MCP servers
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "staging-db": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres"],
      "env": {
        "DATABASE_URL": "${STAGING_DATABASE_URL}"
      }
    },
    "github": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "${GITHUB_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Output

Return an environment matrix showing shared versus local settings, repository Rules and AGENTS.md, excluded paths, identity ownership, test commands, and drift checks. Keep production credentials and environment endpoints outside version-controlled examples.

Error Handling

Examples

Quick Health Check

ls -la .devin/rules/project.md .codeiumignore .windsurf/settings.json 2>/dev/null

Per-Environment Cascade Workflows

<!-- .windsurf/workflows/deploy-staging.md -->
---
name: deploy-staging
---
1. Run `npm test` — abort if failures
2. Run `npm run build`
3. Run `aws ecs update-service --cluster staging --service payments --force-new-deployment`
4. Wait 60 seconds, then check: `curl -sf https://staging-api.example.com/health | jq .`

Resources

• Focused first-party references
• Windsurf Rules Documentation
• Windsurf Admin Guide
• Context Awareness

Related Skill

Continue with windsurf-reference-architecture to connect environment-specific controls to the repository-wide configuration, ownership, validation, and governance model.