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Configuration Management - Details

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This document provides comprehensive information about configuration verification, Kustomize patterns, and best practices.

Best Practices​

Quote All Values​

Using a boolean or integer breaks the Kubernetes specification for environment variables. To protect against this it is important to wrap values that could be interpreted as another type in quotes.

config:
  PORT: "8080"                  # Correct
  # PORT: 8080                  # Wrong: YAML interprets this as an integer
  ENABLED_FEATURE_XYZ: "true"   # Correct
  # ENABLED_FEATURE_XYZ: true   # Wrong: YAML interprets this as a boolean

Use Uppercase for Environment Variables​

Follow the convention of uppercase env var names:

config:
  LOG_LEVEL: debug       # Good
  # log_level: debug     # Avoid

Avoid Hardcoding Sensitive Data​

Never put secrets in config:

config:
  API_URL: https://api.example.com  # OK
  # API_KEY: secret123               # NEVER! Use secrets instead

Check out this page on secrets if you would like to learn more about adding secret data to your deployment.

Use Descriptive Names​

Make config keys self-documenting:

config:
  DATABASE_CONNECTION_POOL_SIZE: "10"  # Clear
  # POOL: "10"                         # Vague

Reference Other Config Values​

Some cloud resources inject their own config. You can reference these:

config:
  # CockroachDB automatically injects these:
  # - crdb_mydb_endpoint
  # - crdb_mydb_port
  # - crdb_mydb_username
  # - crdb_mydb_password (from secrets)
  DATABASE_URL: "postgresql://$(crdb_mydb_username):$(crdb_mydb_password)@$(crdb_mydb_endpoint):$(crdb_mydb_port)/mydb"

For more information check out the official Kubernetes documentation.

Overwrite Values with Patches​

Including configuration values in your base configuration is great for providing a common default. Just do not forget you can overwrite any field for a specific environment if you need to.

# .platform/kubernetes/base/application.yaml
config:
  LOG_LEVEL: INFO
# .platform/kubernetes/dev/application_patch.yaml
config:
  LOG_LEVEL: DEBUG

For more information on your Application repository's .platform structure, check out this page on Platform Folder Anatomy.