diff --git a/src/main/resources/application-ci.yaml b/src/main/resources/application-ci.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d97c7949b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/resources/application-ci.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+ff:
+  duels: true
+  user-metrics: false
diff --git a/src/main/resources/application-dev.yaml b/src/main/resources/application-dev.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f8f1bd411
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/resources/application-dev.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+ff:
+  duels: true
+  user-metrics: true
+
+springdoc:
+  swagger-ui:
+    enabled: true
+  api-docs:
+    enabled: true
diff --git a/src/main/resources/application-prod.yml b/src/main/resources/application-prod.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 56535457d..000000000
--- a/src/main/resources/application-prod.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,16 +0,0 @@
-# todo: re-enable this once inside of k8s cluster
-# logging:
-#   structured:
-#     format:
-#       console: ecs
-#     json:
-#       add:
-#         sha: "@commit.sha@"
-#       stacktrace:
-#         root: first
-#         max-length: 12288
-#         include-common-frames: true
-#         include-hashes: true
-
-ff:
-  duels: false
diff --git a/src/main/resources/application-stg.yml b/src/main/resources/application-stg.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 6a3727414..000000000
--- a/src/main/resources/application-stg.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,16 +0,0 @@
-ff:
-  user-metrics: true
-
-# todo: re-enable this once inside of k8s cluster
-# logging:
-#   structured:
-#     format:
-#       console: ecs
-#     json:
-#       add:
-#         sha: "@commit.sha@"
-#       stacktrace:
-#         root: first
-#         max-length: 12288
-#         include-common-frames: true
-#         include-hashes: true
diff --git a/src/main/resources/application.yml b/src/main/resources/application.yml
index b45144ceb..938f068ed 100644
--- a/src/main/resources/application.yml
+++ b/src/main/resources/application.yml
@@ -53,11 +53,12 @@ spring:
           max-age: 30m
           public: true
 
+# change per env
 springdoc:
   swagger-ui:
-    enabled: ${ENABLE_DOCUMENTATION}
+    enabled: true
   api-docs:
-    enabled: ${ENABLE_DOCUMENTATION}
+    enabled: true
     version: OPENAPI_3_0
 
 github:
@@ -124,10 +125,12 @@ jedis:
   url: ${REDIS_URL}
 
 playwright:
-  headless: ${PLAYWRIGHT_HEADLESS:true}
+  # change to false in application-dev.yaml to see Playwright browser attempting auth
+  headless: true
 
 ff:
-  duels: true
+  # override per environment as needed
+  duels: false
   user-metrics: false
 
 resilience4j:
diff --git a/src/main/resources/logback-spring.xml b/src/main/resources/logback-spring.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index 45a7df8ff..000000000
--- a/src/main/resources/logback-spring.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,18 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<configuration debug="true">
-    <include resource="org/springframework/boot/logging/logback/defaults.xml"/>
-    <include resource="org/springframework/boot/logging/logback/console-appender.xml"/>
-
-    <springProfile name="!prod,!stg">
-        <root level="INFO">
-            <appender-ref ref="CONSOLE"/>
-        </root>
-    </springProfile>
-
-    <springProfile name="prod,stg">
-        <root level="INFO">
-            <appender-ref ref="CONSOLE"/>
-        </root>
-
-    </springProfile>    
-</configuration>