Configuration

In many cases, different stacks for a single project will need differing values. For instance, you may want to use a different size for your AWS EC2 instance, or a different number of servers for your Kubernetes cluster between your development and production stacks.

Pulumi offers a configuration system for managing such differences. Instead of hard-coding the differences, you can store and retrieve configuration values using a combination of the CLI and the programming model.

The key-value pairs for any given stack are stored in your project’s stack settings file, which is automatically named Pulumi.<stack-name>.yaml. You can typically ignore this file, although you may want to check it in and version it with your project source code.

Configuration Options

You can use both the CLI and the programming model for your Pulumi configuration.

• The CLI offers a config command with set and get subcommands for managing key-value pairs.
• The programming model offers a Config object with various getters for retrieving values.

All shell environment variables are passed to the running program and can be accessed using standard runtime APIs, such as process.env in Node.js and os.environ in Python, which can also be used for dynamic behavior. Configuration is preferable, however, because it is designed for multi-stack collaborative scenarios.

Configuration Keys

Configuration keys use the format [<namespace>:]<key-name>, with a colon delimiting the optional namespace and the actual key name. In cases where a simple name without a colon is used, Pulumi automatically uses the current project name from Pulumi.yaml as the namespace.

As an example, this capability allows the AWS package to accept a configuration value for aws:region without conflicting with other packages using the common key name region. It also allows custom components to define their own key spaces without risk of conflicting with other components, packages, or projects.

Setting and Getting Configuration Values

The pulumi config CLI command can get, set, or list configuration key-value pairs in your current project stack:

• pulumi config set <key> [value] sets a configuration entry <key> to [value].
• pulumi config get <key> gets an existing configuration value with the key <key>.
• pulumi config gets all configuration key-value pairs in the current stack (as JSON if --json is passed).

For example, to set and then get the current AWS region in the aws package, you would run the following:

$ pulumi config set aws:region us-west-2
$ pulumi config get aws:region
us-west-2

To set and get configuration in the current project (named broome-proj for example), we can use the simplified key name:

$ pulumi config set name BroomeLLC
$ pulumi config get name
BroomeLLC

If [value] is not specified when setting a configuration key, the CLI will prompt for it interactively. Alternatively, the value can be set from standard input, which is useful for multiline values or any value that must be escaped on the command line:

$ cat my_key.pub | pulumi config set publicKey

Using the Config Flag with pulumi new

Configuration keys and values can be passed when using pulumi new.

To pass a single key/value config pair use:

$ pulumi new template-name --config="key=value"

To pass multiple key/value config pairs use:

$ pulumi new template-name --config="key=value" --config="key=value"

And a complete example showing how to pass in the AWS region:

$ pulumi new aws-typescript --config="aws:region=us-west-2"

Accessing Configuration from Code

Configuration values can be retrieved for a given stack using either Config.get Config.get Config.get config.Get Config.Get or Config.require Config.require Config.require config.Require Config.Require . Using Config.get Config.get Config.get config.Get Config.Get will return undefined undefined None nil null if the configuration value was not provided, and Config.require Config.require Config.require config.Require Config.Require will raise an exception with a helpful error message to prevent the deployment from continuing until the variable has been set using the CLI.

For potentially-secret config, use Config.getSecret Config.getSecret Config.get_secret config.GetSecret Config.GetSecret ctx.config().getSecret(key) or Config.requireSecret Config.requireSecret Config.require_secret config.RequireSecret Config.RequireSecret ctx.config().requireSecret(key) , which will return the config value as an Output which carries both the value and the secret-ness of the config value so that it will be encrypted whenever serialized (see secrets for more on managing secret values).

Configuration methods operate on a particular namespace, which by default is the name of the current project. Passing an empty constructor to Config Config Config config Config , as in the following example, sets it up to read values set without an explicit namespace (e.g., pulumi config set name Joe):

let config = new pulumi.Config();
let name = config.require("name");
let lucky = config.getNumber("lucky") || 42;
let secret = config.requireSecret("secret");

let config = new pulumi.Config();
let name = config.require("name");
let lucky = config.getNumber("lucky") || 42;
let secret = config.requireSecret("secret");

config = pulumi.Config();
name = config.require('name');
lucky = config.get_int('lucky') or 42
secret = config.require_secret('secret')

package main

import (
    "github.com/pulumi/pulumi/sdk/v3/go/pulumi"
    "github.com/pulumi/pulumi/sdk/v3/go/pulumi/config"
)
func main() {
    pulumi.Run(func(ctx *pulumi.Context) error {
        conf := config.New(ctx, "")
        name := conf.Require("name")
        lucky, err := conf.TryInt("lucky")
        if err != nil {
            lucky = 42
        }
        secret := conf.RequireSecret("secret")
        return nil
    }
}

var config = new Pulumi.Config();
var name = config.Require("name");
var lucky = config.GetInt32("lucky") ?? 42;
var secret = config.RequireSecret("secret")

public static void stack(Context ctx) {
    var config = ctx.config();
    var name = config.require("name");
    var lucky = config.getInteger("lucky").orElse(42);
    var secret = config.requireSecret("secret");
}

config:
  name:
    type: string
  lucky:
    default: 42
  secret:
    type: string
    secret: true

To access a namespaced configuration value, such as one set for a provider library like aws, you must pass the library’s name to the constructor. For example, to retrieve the configured value of aws:region:

let awsConfig = new pulumi.Config("aws");
let awsRegion = awsConfig.require("region");

let awsConfig = new pulumi.Config("aws");
let awsRegion = awsConfig.require("region");

aws_config = pulumi.Config("aws");
aws_region = aws_config.require("region");

awsConfig := config.New(ctx, "aws")
awsRegion := awsConfig.Require("region")

var awsConfig = new Pulumi.Config("aws");
var awsRegion = awsConfig.Require("region");

var awsConfig = ctx.config("aws");
var awsRegion = awsConfig.require("region");

variables:
  awsRegion: ${aws:region}

Similarly, if you are writing code that will be imported into a broader project, such as your own library of Pulumi components, you should instead pass your library’s name to the Config Config Config config Config constructor to limit the scope of the query to values prefixed with the name of your library:

class MyComponent extends pulumi.ComponentResource {
    constructor(name: string, args = {}, opts: pulumi.ComponentResourceOptions = {}) {
        super("mylib:index:MyComponent", name, args, opts);

        // Read settings from the 'mylib' namespace (e.g., 'mylib:name').
        const config = new pulumi.Config("mylib");
        const name = config.require("name");
    }
}

class MyComponent extends pulumi.ComponentResource {
    constructor(name, args, opts) {
        super("mylib:index:MyComponent", name, args, opts);

        // Read settings from the 'mylib' namespace (e.g., 'mylib:name').
        const config = new pulumi.Config("mylib");
        const name = config.require("name");
    }
}

class MyComponent(pulumi.ComponentResource):
    def __init__(self, name, opts = None):
        super().__init__("mylib:index:MyComponent", name, None, opts)

        # Read settings from the 'mylib' namespace (e.g., 'mylib:name').
        config = pulumi.Config("mylib")
        name = config.require("name")

        # ...

type MyComponent struct {
    pulumi.ResourceState
}

func NewMyComponent(ctx *pulumi.Context, name string, opts ...pulumi.ResourceOption) (*MyComponent, error) {
    myComponent := &MyComponent{}
    err := ctx.RegisterComponentResource("mylib:index:MyComponent", name, myComponent, opts...)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }

    // Read settings from the 'mylib' namespace (e.g., 'mylib:name').
    conf := config.New(ctx, "mylib")
    name := conf.Require("name")

    // ...
}

class MyComponent : Pulumi.ComponentResource
{
    public MyComponent(string name, ComponentResourceOptions opts)
        : base("mylib:index:MyComponent", name, opts)
    {

        // Read settings from the 'mylib' namespace (e.g., 'mylib:name').
        var config = new Pulumi.Config("mylib");
        var name = config.Require("name");

        // ...
    }
}

import com.pulumi.resources.ComponentResource;
import com.pulumi.resources.ComponentResourceOptions;

class MyComponent extends ComponentResource {
    public MyComponent(String name, ComponentResourceOptions opts) {
        super("mylib:index:MyComponent", name, null, opts);

        // Read settings from the 'mylib' namespace (e.g., 'mylib:name').
        var config = ctx.config("mylib");
        var name = config.require("name");

        // ...
    }
}

Structured Configuration

Structured configuration is also supported and can be set using pulumi config set and the --path flag. When --path is used, it indicates the config key contains a path of where to store the value in an object.

For example:

$ pulumi config set --path 'data.active' true
$ pulumi config set --path 'data.nums[0]' 1
$ pulumi config set --path 'data.nums[1]' 2
$ pulumi config set --path 'data.nums[2]' 3

The structure of data is persisted in the stack’s Pulumi.<stack-name>.yaml file as:

config:
  proj:data:
    active: true
    nums:
    - 1
    - 2
    - 3

For structured config, true and false values are persisted as boolean values, and values convertible to integers are persisted as integers.

The data config can be accessed in your Pulumi program using:

let config = new pulumi.Config();
let data = config.requireObject("data");
console.log(`Active: ${data.active}`);

interface Data {
    active: boolean;
    nums: number[];
}

let config = new pulumi.Config();
let data = config.requireObject<Data>("data");
console.log(`Active: ${data.active}`);

config = pulumi.Config()
data = config.require_object("data")
print("Active:", data.get("active"))

package main

import (
    "github.com/pulumi/pulumi/sdk/v3/go/pulumi"
    "github.com/pulumi/pulumi/sdk/v3/go/pulumi/config"
)

type Data struct {
	Active bool
	Nums   []int
}

func main() {
	pulumi.Run(func(ctx *pulumi.Context) error {
		var d Data
		cfg := config.New(ctx, "")
		cfg.RequireObject("data", &d)
		fmt.Printf("Active: %v\n", d.Active)
		return nil
	})
}

var config = new Pulumi.Config();
var data = config.RequireObject<JsonElement>("data");
Console.WriteLine($"Active: {data.GetProperty("active")}");

public static void stack(Context ctx) {
    var config = ctx.config();
    var data = config.requireObject("data", Map.class);
    ctx.log().info(String.format("Active: %s", data.get("active")));
}

# Pulumi YAML config values are currently limited to String, Number, List<String> and List<Number>

Project Level Configuration

There are cases where configuration for more than one stack in a given project is the same. For example, aws:region may be the same across multiple or all stacks in a project. Project level configuration (also sometimes referred to as hieararchical configuration) allows setting configuration at the project level instead of having to repeat the configuration setting in each stack’s configuration file.

Setting Project Level Configuration

Project level configuration is defined inside the project folder’s Pulumi.yaml file using one’s favorite editor.

Project level configuration supports both simple and structured configuration as described in the sections above. However, structured config needs to include a value keyword. The following example shows what the project level configuration (inside Pulumi.yaml) looks like based on the examples shown above.

config:
  aws:region: us-east-1
  name: BroomeLLC
  data:
    value:
      active: true
      nums:
      - 10
      - 20
      - 30

When project level configuration is set as such, the stacks will consume the project level configuration settings by default unless stack-specific configuration overrides the project-level settings.

Project and Stack Configuration Scope

Stack level configuration using the same key supercedes the project level configuration for that key. For example, if, given the above project level configuration example, one had a Pulumi.dev.yaml file containing:

config:
  aws:region: us-east-2
  name: MopLLC

Then the dev stack would be deployed in us-east-2 instead of us-east-1 and the name configuration value would be MopLLC instead of BroomeLLC defined in the project configuration.

Strongly Typed Configuration

The project level configuration can also be used to define type specifications for stack level configuration, including setting defaults. This enables commands like pulumi preview to throw an error if a stack level configuration value is not of the correct type.

For example, given this in the Pulumi.yaml file:

config:
    name:
        type: string
        description: Base name to use for resources.
        default: BroomeLLC
    subnets:
        type: array
        description: Array of subnets to create.
        items:
            type: string

The stacks will default to using BroomeLLC for the name configuration item. And the pulumi cli will throw an error if the stack configuration file contains a name property set to, say, an integer. Similarly, if the stack configuration file has a subnets property and it is not defined as an array of strings, the pulumi cli will throw an error.

Provider Configuration Options

There are three ways to configure providers:

1. Set configuration keys in the stack configuration file: pulumi config set [PROVIDER]:[KEY] [VALUE]
2. Set a provider-specific environment variable
3. Pass arguments to the provider’s SDK constructor, in your program

Please note:

• Configuration file settings are only used by the default provider. If you instantiate a provider object, it will not read values from the stack configuration.
• The precedence of configuration sources (configuration file, environment and args) can vary between providers. Please refer to the provider’s documentation for specific configuration instructions.

Pulumi Configuration Options

This is a list of configuration keys that the Pulumi CLI is aware of:

pulumi:disable-default-providers

A list of packages for which default providers should be disabled. * disables default providers for all packages.

In the following example, the default providers for aws and kubernetes are disabled.

config:
  pulumi:disable-default-providers:
    - aws
    - kubernetes

pulumi:tags

A list of stack tags which are read by the Pulumi CLI and automatically applied on the stack at every pulumi up or pulumi refresh action.

config:
  pulumi:tags:
    company: "Some LLC"
    team: Ops

Pulumi CLI only creates or updates tags which are listed in the config. If you remove a tag from the stack config, you have to remove it from the stack in Pulumi Cloud manually.

Stack tags applied by Pulumi CLI are listed in the Tags section of the Overview tab:

Using Pulumi ESC from Pulumi Stack Config

Often there is common configuration and secrets you do not want to duplicate in various stack configuration files. Pulumi ESC can help with that!

Once you have an environment set up and you are projecting pulumi configuration, you can import that environment(/docs/esc/integrations/infrastructure/pulumi-iac/pulumi-stacks/) (or multiple environments) into your Pulumi stack.

# import the test environment and all of its configuration
environment:
  - test
config:
    # normal pulumi config