Environment Variables

Zerops manages environment variables at two scopes: service level and project level. These variables are handled automatically without requiring .env files.

Service Variables

Variables that are specific to individual services.

User-Defined Variables

You can define service-level variables in two ways:

1. Build & Runtime Variables

These variables are defined with envVariables attribute in the build or run section of your zerops.yaml file and are accessible within their respective containers.

zerops.yaml

...
  build:
    envVariables:
      DB_NAME: db
      DB_HOST: 127.0.0.1
      DB_USER: db
      DB_PASS: password
    ...
  run:
    envVariables:
      DB_NAME: db
      DB_HOST: 127.0.0.1
      DB_USER: db
      DB_PASS: password

See how to reference variables between services and between build and runtime environments.

Note

Your application must be redeployed when updating environmental variables in zerops.yaml.

2. Secret Variables

For storing sensitive data you don't want in your source repository. They can be updated without redeployment (though services need to be restarted).

Secret variables can be managed through:

GUI Interface

Navigate to service details and find Environment variables in the menu. You can:

• Add individual variables using the "Add secret variable" button
• Edit individual variables through the menu that appears on hover
• Use the bulk editor for managing multiple variables in .env format

Import Configuration

Create secret variables for a service with envSecrets attribute. See the complete import.yaml structure.

import.yaml

services:
  ...
  envSecrets:
    S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID: 'your-secret-s3-key'
    S3_ACCESS_SECRET: 'your-s3-access-secret'

System-Generated Variables

Zerops automatically generates variables based on service type.

These variables cannot be deleted and are always listed at the bottom of the environment variables page. Some are read-only (like hostname), while others can be edited (like PATH).

These variables can also be referenced.

Project Variables

Variables that apply across all services within a project. These provide a way to share common configuration across services.

They work similarly to service secret variables but at project scope - they're managed through the GUI and can be updated without redeployment (though services need to be restarted).

User-Defined Variables

You can set project-wide variables through:

GUI Interface

Access Project environment variables in your project detail to:

• Add individual variables one by one
• Edit individual variables
• Use the bulk editor with .env format:

Import Configuration

Create project variables with envVariables attribute. See the complete import.yaml structure.

import.yaml

project:
  ...
  envVariables:
    LOG_LEVEL: info
    API_VERSION: v1

System-Generated Variables

Zerops automatically generates project-level variables containing that can be referenced from services.

Variable Restrictions

All environment variables must follow these restrictions:

Key

• Alphanumeric characters only (use _ to separate words)
• Must be unique within their scope
• Case-sensitive

Value

• ASCII characters only
• No EOL characters

Variable Management

Variable Precedence

When the same environment variable key exists in multiple places, Zerops follows these precedence rules:

1. Service-level variables take precedence over project variables
2. Within service-level:
   • Build/runtime variables override secret variables
   • Build and runtime containers are separate environments

Referencing Variables

You can reference other variables using the ${variable_name} syntax:

Within Same Service

envVariables:
  id: 42069
  hostname: app
  name: ${id}-${hostname}  # Results in: 42069-app

Across Services

Prefix variables with their respective service name:

setup: dbtest
  run:
    envVariables:
      connectionString: 127.0.0.1

setup: app
  run:
    envVariables:
      dbConnection: ${dbtest_connectionString}

Between Build and Runtime Environments

Build and runtime are two distinct environments in Zerops. Each environment can have its own set of variables, and you can use the same variable names in both environments since they are separate. Due to this separation, variables defined in one are not automatically accessible in the other.

To share variables between environments, you need to use specific prefixes:

• Use RUNTIME_ prefix to access runtime variables during build
• Use BUILD_ prefix to access build variables during runtime

Here's an example of zerops.yaml file showing how to reference a runtime variable during build:

zerops.yaml

build:
  envVariables:
    API_KEY: ${RUNTIME_API_KEY}  # Using runtime variable during build
run:
  envVariables:
    API_KEY: "12345-abcde"      # Referenced in build with RUNTIME_ prefix

Project Variables

No prefix needed when referencing project variables:

import.yaml

project:
  ...
  envVariables:
    projectName: devel

zerops.yaml

envVariables:
  id: 42069
  hostname: app
  name: ${projectName}-${hostname}  # Results in: devel-app

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