Elixir's configuration management has evolved significantly over the years, introducing various improvements to overcome its initial complexity and rough edges. Historically, Elixir recommended compile-time configuration using application environment variables, but this approach faced criticism due to its downsides, such as the necessity for recompilation upon configuration changes. Recent Elixir versions have shifted towards runtime configuration, notably with the introduction of config/runtime.exs in Elixir 1.11, which allows configuration to be set at runtime rather than compile-time, avoiding several pitfalls like race conditions in tests and the need for recompilation. The Elixir community now encourages minimizing compile-time configuration, especially for environment-specific settings, and recommends using environment variables stored in .env files for development. For complex projects, a separate runtime configuration file for each environment is suggested to manage large configurations effectively. These advancements aim to make Elixir applications more flexible and maintainable by promoting best practices in configuration management.