I have created a production build from CRA in it there is a connection string
that when trying to get it into kubernetes via a service, I set it up in this way :

The minified version prod ready of CRA translate it to this

"http://"+Object({NODE_ENV:"production",PUBLIC_URL:""}).APISERVER_SERVICE_HOST+":"+Object({NODE_ENV:"production",PUBLIC_URL:""}).APISERVER_SERVICE_PORT

process.env does not have any container ENV.
Could it be that the build just "baked-in" the env variables at build time and that's the reason the client sees them as strings rather that key/values while in the pod ?

The goal is to access the api url utilize env variables within the container via process.env.VARIABLE_NAME once the pod are deployed

The thing is when it gets deployed the uri is undefined meaning the code is unable to convert/detect/translate proccess.env.VARIABLE to its value
Even console.log(process.env) returns undefined

If I get into the pod/container and check env variables they are working correctly

Why am I not getting the values of env variables in my build?
Do I have to build it at a certain time?
What am I missing?

Dockerfile

FROM node:10 as build-deps
RUN mkdir /usr/src/app
WORKDIR /usr/src/app
ENV PATH /usr/src/app/node_modules/.bin:$PATH
COPY package.json /usr/src/app/package.json
RUN npm install --silent
RUN npm install react-scripts -g --silent
COPY . /usr/src/app
RUN npm run build
RUN echo $APISERVER_SERVICE_HOST

FROM nginx:1.12-alpine
RUN  apk update && apk add nodejs 
RUN rm -rf /etc/nginx/conf.d
COPY conf /etc/nginx 
COPY --from=build-deps /usr/src/app/build /usr/share/nginx/html
RUN echo $APISERVER_SERVICE_HOST
EXPOSE 80
CMD ["nginx", "-g", "daemon off;"]

Service and Deployment kubernetes

#Service for readable
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: null
  labels:
    run: readable-deployment
  name: readable
spec:
  ports:
  - port: 80
    protocol: TCP
    targetPort: 80
  selector:
    run: readable-deployment
  type: LoadBalancer
status:
  loadBalancer: {}  


---
#Deployment for Readable
apiVersion: apps/v1beta1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: null
  labels:
    run: readable-deployment
  name: readable-deployment
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      run: readable-deployment
  strategy: {}
  template:
    metadata:
      creationTimestamp: null
      labels:
        run: readable-deployment
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: gcr.io/kuberneteseval/readable:latest-01
        name: readable-deployment
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
        resources: {}
status: {}