I have the local .env.local setup

NEXT_PUBLIC_APPLICATION_BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000

and this is how I use it in componen (a client component)

    useEffect(() => {
        console.log("Fetching companies...");
        console.log("process.env.APPLICATION_BASE_URL", process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_APPLICATION_BASE_URL);  
        fetch(`${process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_APPLICATION_BASE_URL}/api/deals`)
            .then(response => response.json())
            .then(data => {
                if (Array.isArray(data)) {
                    setCompanies(data);
                } else {
                    console.error("Fetched data is not an array:", data);
                }
            })
            .catch(error => console.error("Error fetching companies:", error));
    }, []);

in production i keep seeing the app make this request "localhost:3000"? How is this possible? .env.local is not included in the repository how do it even know "localhost:3000"? am I using process.env.APPLICATION_BASE_URL wrong?