Techniques for configuring applications are disclosed. A system maps software development stages to respective stage-specific configurations in two or more sets of stage-specific configurations. The system selects a software development stage for configuring an instance of an application. Responsive to selection of the software development stage, the system configures the instance of the application based at least on: a stage-specific configuration, in a set of stage-specific configurations, corresponding to the software development stage; and another stage-specific configuration, in another set of stage-specific configurations, corresponding to the software development stage. The system executes the instance of the application based at least on the stage-specific configurations from the sets of stage-specific configurations.