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Overview

Variables in Ctrlplane make your deployments dynamic and adaptable. They let you maintain consistent processes while accommodating differences across environments, resources, and releases.

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Variable Types

Ctrlplane supports four primary variable types:

  • Environment Variables: Values specific to each environment (dev, staging, production)
    • Example: database_url, log_level, api_endpoint
  • System Variables: Values shared across your entire system
    • Example: company_name, team_id, global_timeout
  • Resource Variables: Values specific to individual resources
    • Example: server_ip, instance_size, memory_allocation
  • Release Variables: Values tied to specific software releases
    • Example: version, release_notes, build_commit

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Defining Variables

Variables can be defined in the Ctrlplane UI or API:

  1. Navigate to the appropriate section (Environment, System, Resource, or Release)
  2. Select “Variables” or “Configuration”
  3. Add variable key-value pairs
  4. Save your changes

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Using Variables in Deployments

Reference variables in your deployment scripts using double curly braces:

# Environment variable
echo "Connecting to database at {{.environment.database_url}}"

# System variable
echo "Deploying for {{.system.company_name}}"

# Resource variable
echo "Server IP address: {{.resource.server_ip}}"

# Release variable
echo "Deploying version {{.release.version}}"

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Variable Inheritance and Precedence

When variables with the same name exist at different levels:

  1. Resource variables take highest precedence
  2. Release variables are next
  3. Environment variables follow
  4. System variables have lowest precedence

This hierarchy lets you define defaults at the system level while overriding them for specific environments, releases, or resources.