Advanced YAML Syntax

Since the .cnb.yml configuration file is in YAML format, you can leverage more YAML features (such as anchors &, aliases *, and object merge operator <<) to simplify the configuration file.

Here's a simple example using anchors and aliases for simplification:

# When pull_request and push events have identical pipelines, this approach can reduce duplication
.pipeline: &pipeline
  docker:
    image: node:22
  stages:
    - name: install
      script: npm install
    - name: test
      script: npm test

main:
  pull_request:
    - <<: *pipeline
  push:
    - <<: *pipeline

Multi-level nesting is supported:

.jobs: &jobs
  - name: install
    script: npm install
  - name: test
    script: npm test

.pipeline: &pipeline
  docker:
    image: node:22
  stages: *jobs

main:
  pull_request:
    - <<: *pipeline
  push:
    - <<: *pipeline

Tips

These are built-in YAML features that only work when parsing a single YAML file and cannot be used across files.

File References

To facilitate pipeline configuration reuse, Cloud Native Build implements the following features:

• include: Cross-file pipeline template references.
• imports: Cross-file variable references.
• optionsFrom: Cross-file built-in task parameter references.
• settingsFrom: Cross-file plugin task parameter references.

For detailed file reference documentation, see File References

Variable References

To solve the issue that YAML anchors and aliases cannot be used across files, Cloud Native Build implements the following feature:

reference: Cross-file variable references by property path.