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Config Design Overview

This section gives you an overview of how the router handles configuration merging and provides guidance on how you can structure your configurations effectively.

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Configuration Merging

Available since Router 0.221.0

The router lets you load multiple configurations at once. You can specify your configurations in two ways:

  1. Using the CONFIG_PATH environment variable or in your .env file:
CONFIG_PATH=base.config.yaml,dev.config.yaml
  1. Using the config flag when starting the router:
# Pass params individually
./router --config base.config.yaml --config dev.config.yaml

# Or pass them as a comma separated list
./router --config base.config.yaml,dev.config.yaml

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Environment Variables

The router supports two types of environment variable usage:

  1. Direct environment variable settings
  2. Environment variable interpolation in YAML configurations

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Environment Variable Precedence

Environment variables have the lowest precedence in the configuration hierarchy:

  • They are loaded first
  • YAML configurations are loaded after environment variables and will override any matching values

For example:

# Environment variable
READINESS_CHECK_PATH=/path1

# config.yaml
readiness_check_path: /updatedPath

In this case, the final value used will be /updatedPath because the YAML configuration overrides the environment variable. Even if the YAML configuration value is empty, as long as it’s specified the environment variable will be overridden, for example

# config.yaml
readiness_check_path: ""

You have two options for environment files:

  • A base .env file for your common settings
  • An override environment file using OVERRIDE_ENV for environment-specific settings

The values from your OVERRIDE_ENV file will take precedence over the base .env file (if you have one).

Not all configuration values have corresponding environment variables. If you need to configure a value via environment variables but it’s not currently supported, do not hesitate to reach out to us.

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Environment Variable Interpolation

We also allow the interpolation / expanding of environment variables in YAML’s by using the following syntax

${ENVAR}

This allows you to do for example the following

readiness_check_path: /${READINESS_PATH}/${SUFFIX_URL}

With the following environment variables

READINESS_PATH=ready
SUFFIX_URL=check

Which will result in

readiness_check_path: /ready/check

When using environment variable interpolation, make sure the environment variables are set before the router starts. If an environment variable is not set, the interpolation will result in no value.

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Understanding Environment Variable Interpolation

Environment variable interpolation provides a way to use environment variables as the source of truth in your configuration. This is particularly useful for:

  • Path configurations that might change between environments
  • Sensitive values that should be managed through environment variables
  • Values that need to be dynamically set during deployment

For example, if you have a default environment variable like READINESS_CHECK_PATH, you can:

  1. Use it directly in your YAML through interpolation (${READINESS_CHECK_PATH})
  2. Change its value through environment variables without modifying the YAML
  3. Maintain consistency across different environments

This approach is especially valuable when you want to ensure that certain values are always controlled by environment variables rather than being overridden by YAML configurations.

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How Merging Works

Before we merge your configurations, we validate each YAML file against our configuration schema. This ensures everything is valid before we start combining them.

Here’s how the merging process works:

  • The last configuration in your list has the highest priority
  • If a key exists in multiple files, the last one wins
  • New keys get added if they don’t exist yet
  • After merging, we validate everything again to make sure all rules are followed

Let’s look at a simple example to see how this works:

base.yaml

listen_addr: 127.0.0.1:3007
poll_interval: 17s

dev.yaml

listen_addr: listen.address:3007
readiness_check_path: /health/ready/check

The final output will be:

listen_addr: listen.address:3007
poll_interval: 17s
readiness_check_path: /health/ready/check

As you can see, listen_addr from dev.yaml overrode the one from base.yaml, while poll_interval carried forward since it wasn’t overridden.

If we add another file after dev.yaml:

listen_addr: new.address:3007
readiness_check_path: /health/ready/check

The final output becomes:

listen_addr: new.address:3007
poll_interval: 17s
readiness_check_path: /health/ready/check

Important Note: When dealing with lists in your YAML configurations, the entire list gets replaced rather than merged. This is especially important to remember when your list elements have a key attribute.

Here’s an example using a simple array

base.yaml

cors:
  allow_headers:
    - header1
    - header2

Simple scalar values can also be represented as the following in YAML, they are technically the same as the above syntax.

allow_headers: ["header1", "header2"]

dev.yaml

cors:
  allow_headers:
    - overrideHeader1
    - overrideHeader2

The resulting YAML would be

cors:
  allow_headers:
    - overrideHeader1
    - overrideHeader2

Lists can also contain complex types, for example:

base.yaml

telemetry:
  attributes:
    - key: content_type
      default: 'no-content-type-found'
      value_from:
        request_header: content-type

dev.yaml

listen_addr: 127.0.0.1:3007
telemetry:
  attributes:
    - key: operation_sha
      default: 'no_sha'
      value_from:
        context_field: operation_sha256
    - key: operation_validation_time
      default: 'no_validation_time'
      value_from:
        context_field: operation_validation_time

The final output will be:

listen_addr: 127.0.0.1:3007
telemetry:
  attributes:
    - key: operation_sha
      default: 'no_sha'
      value_from:
        context_field: operation_sha256
    - key: operation_validation_time
      default: 'no_validation_time'
      value_from:
        context_field: operation_validation_time

Likewise another caveat is that you should keep in mind validation rules when attempting to design configurations so that it can be merged. Let’s take a look at the following example.

base.config.yaml

execution_config:
  file:
    path: execution_config.json
    watch: true
    watch_interval: 5s

dev.config.yaml

execution_config:
  file:
    path: execution_config.json
    watch: false

In this example, we run into a validation issue after merging. The JSON schema requires that watch_interval cannot be present when watch is false. While each individual configuration file is valid, the merged result becomes invalid because watch_interval from the base config remains even though watch is set to false in the dev config.

To handle this scenario, you have two options:

  1. Recommended Approach: Set watch: false as the default in your base configuration and explicitly enable it where needed:
# base.config.yaml
execution_config:
  file:
    path: execution_config.json
    watch: false

# dev.config.yaml
execution_config:
  file:
    path: execution_config.json
    watch: true
    watch_interval: 5s
  1. Alternative Approach: Create separate configurations for different watch settings:
# base.config.yaml
execution_config:
  file:
    path: execution_config.json

# watch-enabled.config.yaml
execution_config:
  file:
    watch: true
    watch_interval: 5s

# watch-disabled.config.yaml
execution_config:
  file:
    watch: false

The first approach is generally recommended as it makes the configuration intent clearer and reduces the number of configuration files you need to manage.

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Hot Config Reloading

When you enable hot config reloading, we’ll watch all your configuration files for changes. Whenever any configuration changes, we’ll reprocess everything and rebuild your final merged configuration.

The router does not support reloading of .env files at this moment, and any .env change will require you to restart the router.

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Designing Configurations

Before configuration merging, you had to use one big configuration file, which could get messy and hard to maintain. Now you can split your configurations into smaller, more manageable pieces. Here are some ways you can structure your configurations:

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Environment-Based Structure

This is a common approach where you split your configs by environment:

config/
  base.config.yaml
  dev/
    dev.config.yaml
  staging/
    stage.config.yaml
  production/
    prod.config.yaml

You can use these environment variables for each environment:

# for dev
CONFIG_PATH=base.config.yaml,./dev/dev.config.yaml

# for staging
CONFIG_PATH=base.config.yaml,./staging/stage.config.yaml

# for prod
CONFIG_PATH=base.config.yaml,./production/prod.config.yaml

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Feature-Based Structure

You can also organize your configs by feature:

config/
  rate_limit.yaml
  telemetry.yaml
  prod/
    telemetry.yaml
    tracing.yaml
    metrics.yaml

Here’s how you might use these configs:

# for prod
CONFIG_PATH=rate_limit.yaml,telemetry.yaml,./prod/telemetry.yaml,./prod/tracing.yaml,./prod/metrics.yaml

Note: When using this approach, be careful not to accidentally duplicate attributes across different files. For example, if you define a rate limiting attribute in both rate_limit.yaml and telemetry.yaml, the one in telemetry.yaml will override the other.

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Combining Configuration and Environment Files

You can even combine both approaches with environment variables:

config/
  base.config.yaml
  .env
  dev/
    .env.dev
    dev.config.yaml
  staging/
    .env.stage
    stage.config.yaml
  production/
    .env.prod
    prod.config.yaml

For your staging environment, you would set:

OVERRIDE_ENV=./staging/.env.stage

These configuration patterns are suggestions to help you get started. Feel free to adapt them to match your specific requirements and organizational needs. The key is to maintain a structure that makes sense for your team and use case.