8.55Modern configuration architecture

A good mental model:

                  SOURCE CONTROL
                       │
              Mule application code
                       │
                       ↓
                    ARTIFACT
                       │
          ┌────────────┼────────────┐
          ↓            ↓            ↓
         DEV           QA          PROD
          │            │            │
     dev config    qa config    prod config
          │            │            │
    dev secrets    qa secrets    prod secrets
          │            │            │
    SF Sandbox     SF Sandbox    SF Production

The artifact remains the same.

That picture is worth remembering.