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- Version · 6.0
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Set up Liquibase for multiple environments
Last updated: August 11, 2026
In real-world projects, you’ll often work with several database environments, such as development, testing, staging, and production. Liquibase gives you tools to apply database changes safely and selectively across these environments. This article walks through how to use Liquibase contexts to manage multiple environments.
Before you begin
Make sure you've installed Liquibase and can run
liquibasefrom your command line.Connect your database to Liquibase. You'll need to follow the configuration guide for your specific database. You'll also create your first changelog during this process to test your database connection.
If you have an existing database, you'll also need to generate your changelog from your existing database.
Set up your changelog structure with a root changelog and connect your changelogs.
Procedure
Add context labels to your changesets
Liquibase contexts let you apply changesets conditionally depending on the environment.
You can define changesets with contexts like legacy and non-legacy. In the example code, the first changeset runs in the legacy environment, HR_Dev. The second changeset runs in the non-legacy environment, HR_Test.
Example Code
Apply your changes.
To apply changes only for HR_Dev, run:
liquibase update --context-filter=legacyTo apply changes for HR_Test, run:
liquibase update --context-filter=non-legacy