Variables

Table of contents

  1. Overview
  2. Configuration
  3. Configuration Options
    1. name
    2. value
  4. Variables in Helm Stacks
  5. Error Handling
  6. Next Steps

Overview

BeKind lets you define key/value pair variables at the top of your configuration file and reference them anywhere else in the YAML, including Helm chart values, Docker image lists, the KIND config, manifests lists, and Helm Stack files. This is useful for:

  • Defining a value once (like a domain or image tag) and reusing it in multiple places
  • Keeping configurations easy to update
  • Building values from other values (like a domain built from an IP)

Configuration

Declare variables under the top-level vars key as a list of name/value pairs, then reference them with ${{ .vars.<name> }}:

vars:
  - name: myimage
    value: quay.io/christianh814/simple-go:latest
loadDockerImages:
  images:
    - ${{ .vars.myimage }}

Variables work anywhere in the configuration, including nested Helm values:

vars:
  - name: domainName
    value: 7f000001.nip.io
helmCharts:
  - url: "https://example.com/charts"
    repo: "example"
    chart: "test"
    release: "test"
    namespace: "mynamespace"
    wait: true
    valuesObject:
      installCRDs: "true"
      controller:
        domains:
          - ${{ .vars.domainName }}

Configuration Options

name

Type: string
Required: Yes
Description: The name of the variable. Must start with a letter or underscore and contain only letters, numbers, and underscores.

Names that match a BeKind configuration field (for example loadDockerImages, kindConfig, or helmCharts) are reserved and cannot be used. Duplicate names are also rejected.

value

Type: string
Required: Yes
Description: The value of the variable. A value may reference variables defined earlier in the list:

vars:
  - name: ip
    value: 7f000001
  - name: domainName
    value: ${{ .vars.ip }}.nip.io

Variables in Helm Stacks

Variables defined in your main configuration file are also expanded inside Helm Stack stack.yaml files:

# ~/.bekind/config.yaml
vars:
  - name: domainName
    value: 7f000001.nip.io
helmStack:
  - name: argocd

# ~/.bekind/helmstack/argocd/stack.yaml
helmCharts:
  - url: "https://argoproj.github.io/argo-helm"
    repo: "argo"
    chart: "argo-cd"
    release: "argocd"
    namespace: "argocd"
    wait: true
    valuesObject:
      global:
        domain: argocd.${{ .vars.domainName }}

Error Handling

BeKind fails fast with a clear error if:

  • A variable name is invalid, reserved, or duplicated
  • A value references a variable that hasn’t been defined yet
  • The configuration references an undefined variable (catches typos)

Referencing an undefined variable is always an error, so a typo like ${{ .vars.myimge }} will stop cluster creation instead of being silently ignored.

Next Steps