Localhost vs Deployment — The Pain Is Real

We’ve all been there. It works on my machine™ — until it doesn’t. On localhost, everything is perfect. APIs respond instantly. Environment variables are exactly where they should be. CORS? Never heard of her. Then you hit deploy, and suddenly: CSS looks like a ransom note Images 404 into the void The database forgot how to count NODE_ENV=production breaks a package nobody touched in 3 years Why does this still happen in 2026? Because local and production are different realities: Localhost Produc