diff --git a/appengine_war.gradle b/appengine_war.gradle
index 9f776e974..09828a4bc 100644
--- a/appengine_war.gradle
+++ b/appengine_war.gradle
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
 // See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 // limitations under the License.
 
-apply from: "${rootDir.path}/projects.gradle"
 apply plugin: 'war'
 
 def environment = rootProject.environment
@@ -68,6 +67,10 @@ appengine {
         if (!rootProject.prodOrSandboxEnv) {
             version = 'GCLOUD_CONFIG'
         }
+
+        // Don't set gcpProject directly, it gets overriden in ./build.gradle.
+        // Do -P environment={crash,alpha} instead.  For sandbox/production,
+        // use Spinnaker.
         projectId = gcpProject
     }
 }
@@ -92,4 +95,15 @@ explodeWar.doLast {
 
 rootProject.deploy.dependsOn appengineDeployAll
 rootProject.stage.dependsOn appengineStage
-appengineDeployAll.dependsOn rootProject.verifyDeployment
+
+// Impose verification for all of the deployment tasks.  We haven't found a
+// better way to do this other than to apply to each of them independently.
+// If a new task gets added, it will still fail if "environment"  is not defined
+// because gcpProject is null.  We just won't get as friendly an error message.
+appengineDeployAll.configure rootProject.verifyDeploymentConfig
+appengineDeploy.configure rootProject.verifyDeploymentConfig
+appengineDeployCron.configure rootProject.verifyDeploymentConfig
+appengineDeployDispatch.configure rootProject.verifyDeploymentConfig
+appengineDeployDos.configure rootProject.verifyDeploymentConfig
+appengineDeployIndex.configure rootProject.verifyDeploymentConfig
+appengineDeployQueue.configure rootProject.verifyDeploymentConfig
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 9b085e009..8253f8417 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -109,21 +109,64 @@ task deploy {
   description = 'Deploys all services to App Engine.'
 }
 
-task verifyDeployment {
-  group = 'deployment'
-  description = 'Ensure that one cannot deploy to production or sandbox.'
-  doFirst {
-    if (rootProject.prodOrSandboxEnv) {
-      throw new GradleException("Cannot deploy to production or sandbox.");
-    }
-  }
-}
-
 task stage {
   group = 'deployment'
   description = 'Generates application directories for all services.'
 }
 
+// App-engine environment configuration.  We set up all of the variables in
+// the root project.
+
+def environments = ['production', 'sandbox', 'alpha', 'crash']
+
+// TODO(mmuller): Move this into internal specialization code.
+def projects = ['production': 'domain-registry',
+                'sandbox'   : 'domain-registry-sandbox',
+                'alpha'     : 'domain-registry-alpha',
+                'crash'     : 'domain-registry-crash']
+
+def gcpProject = null
+
+if (environment == '') {
+    // Keep the project null, this will prevent deployment.  Set the
+    // environment to "alpha" because other code needs this property to
+    // explode the war file.
+    environment = 'alpha'
+} else if (environment != 'production' && environment != 'sandbox') {
+    gcpProject = projects[environment]
+    if (gcpProject == null) {
+        throw new GradleException("-Penvironment must be one of ${environments}.")
+    }
+}
+
+rootProject.ext.environment = environment
+rootProject.ext.gcpProject = gcpProject
+rootProject.ext.prodOrSandboxEnv = environment in ['production', 'sandbox']
+
+// Function to verify that the deployment parameters have been set.
+def verifyDeploymentParams() {
+    if (prodOrSandboxEnv) {
+        // Do not deploy to prod or sandbox. Print a prominent error in bright red.
+        System.err.println('\033[31;1m-----------------------------------------------------------------')
+        System.err.println('*** DANGER WILL ROBINSON!')
+        System.err.println('*** You may not deploy to production or sandbox from gradle.  Do a')
+        System.err.println('*** release from Spinnaker, see deployment playbook.')
+        System.err.println('-----------------------------------------------------------------')
+        throw new GradleException('Aborting. See prominent error above.')
+    } else if (gcpProject == null) {
+        def error = 'You must specify -P environment={alpha,crash}'
+        System.err.println("\033[33;1m${error}\033[0m")
+        throw GradleException("Aborting:  ${error}")
+    }
+}
+
+// Closure that we can just drop into all of our deployment tasks.
+rootProject.ext.verifyDeploymentConfig = {
+    doFirst { verifyDeploymentParams() }
+}
+
+// Subproject configuration.
+
 allprojects {
   // Skip no-op project
   if (project.name == 'services') return
diff --git a/gradle.properties b/gradle.properties
index 73510aea0..16ef21165 100644
--- a/gradle.properties
+++ b/gradle.properties
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ verboseTestOutput=false
 flowDocsFile=
 enableDependencyLocking=true
 
+# GAE Environment for deployment and staging.
+environment=
+
 # Cloud SQL properties
 
 # A registry environment name (e.g., 'alpha') or a host[:port] string
diff --git a/projects.gradle b/projects.gradle
deleted file mode 100644
index 6b061fb82..000000000
--- a/projects.gradle
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,37 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright 2019 The Nomulus Authors. All Rights Reserved.
-//
-// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-// You may obtain a copy of the License at
-//
-//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-//
-// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-// limitations under the License.
-
-def environments = ['production', 'sandbox', 'alpha', 'crash']
-
-def projects = ['production': 'domain-registry',
-                'sandbox'   : 'domain-registry-sandbox',
-                'alpha'     : 'domain-registry-alpha',
-                'crash'     : 'domain-registry-crash']
-
-
-def environment = rootProject.findProperty("environment")
-
-if (environment == null) {
-    environment = 'production'
-}
-
-def gcpProject = projects[environment]
-
-if (gcpProject == null) {
-    throw new GradleException("-Penvironment must be one of ${environments}.")
-}
-
-rootProject.ext.environment = environment
-rootProject.ext.gcpProject = gcpProject
-rootProject.ext.prodOrSandboxEnv = ['production', 'sandbox'].contains(environment)