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hcldec spec format

The hcldec spec format instructs hcldec on how to validate one or more configuration files given in the HCL syntax and how to translate the result into JSON format.

The spec format is itself built from HCL syntax, with each HCL block serving as a spec whose block type and contents together describe a single mapping action and, in most cases, a validation constraint. Each spec block produces one JSON value.

A spec file must have a single top-level spec block that describes the top-level JSON value hcldec will return, and that spec block may have other nested spec blocks (depending on its type) that produce nested structures and additional validation constraints.

The most common usage of hcldec is to produce a JSON object whose properties are derived from the top-level content of the input file. In this case, the root of the given spec file will have an object spec block whose contents describe how each of the object's properties are to be populated using nested spec blocks.

Each spec is evaluated in the context of an HCL body, which is the HCL terminology for one level of nesting in a configuration file. The top-level objects in a file all belong to the root body of that file, and then each nested block has its own body containing the elements within that block. Some spec types select a new body as the context for their nested specs, allowing nested HCL structures to be decoded.

Spec Block Types

The following sections describe the different block types that can be used to define specs within a spec file.

object spec blocks

The object spec type is the most commonly used at the root of a spec file. Its result is a JSON object whose properties are set based on any nested spec blocks:

object {
  attr "name" {
    type = "string"
  }
  block "address" {
    object {
      attr "street" {
        type = "string"
      }
      # ...
    }
  }
}

Nested spec blocks inside object must always have an extra block label "name", "address" and "street" in the above example) that specifies the name of the property that should be created in the JSON object result. This label also acts as a default name selector for the nested spec, allowing the attr blocks in the above example to omit the usually-required name argument in cases where the HCL input name and JSON output name are the same.

An object spec block creates no validation constraints, but it passes on any validation constraints created by the nested specs.

array spec blocks

The array spec type produces a JSON array whose elements are set based on any nested spec blocks:

array {
  attr {
    name = "first_element"
    type = "string"
  }
  attr {
    name = "second_element"
    type = "string"
  }
}

An array spec block creates no validation constraints, but it passes on any validation constraints created by the nested specs.

attr spec blocks

The attr spec type reads the value of an attribute in the current body and returns that value as its result. It also creates validation constraints for the given attribute name and its value.

attr {
  name     = "document_root"
  type     = string
  required = true
}

attr spec blocks accept the following arguments:

  • name (required) - The attribute name to expect within the HCL input file. This may be omitted when a default name selector is created by a parent object spec, if the input attribute name should match the output JSON object property name.

  • type (optional) - A type expression that the given attribute value must conform to. If this argument is set, hcldec will automatically convert the given input value to this type or produce an error if that is not possible.

  • required (optional) - If set to true, hcldec will produce an error if a value is not provided for the source attribute.

attr is a leaf spec type, so no nested spec blocks are permitted.

block spec blocks

The block spec type applies one nested spec block to the contents of a block within the current body and returns the result of that spec. It also creates validation constraints for the given block type name.

block {
  block_type = "logging"

  object {
    attr "level" {
      type = string
    }
    attr "file" {
      type = string
    }
  }
}

block spec blocks accept the following arguments:

  • block_type (required) - The block type name to expect within the HCL input file. This may be omitted when a default name selector is created by a parent object spec, if the input block type name should match the output JSON object property name.

  • required (optional) - If set to true, hcldec will produce an error if a block of the specified type is not present in the current body.

block creates a validation constraint that there must be zero or one blocks of the given type name, or exactly one if required is set.

block expects a single nested spec block, which is applied to the body of the block of the given type when it is present.

block_list spec blocks

The block_list spec type is similar to block, but it accepts zero or more blocks of a specified type rather than requiring zero or one. The result is a JSON array with one entry per block of the given type.

block_list {
  block_type = "log_file"

  object {
    attr "level" {
      type = string
    }
    attr "filename" {
      type     = string
      required = true
    }
  }
}

block_list spec blocks accept the following arguments:

  • block_type (required) - The block type name to expect within the HCL input file. This may be omitted when a default name selector is created by a parent object spec, if the input block type name should match the output JSON object property name.

  • min_items (optional) - If set to a number greater than zero, hcldec will produce an error if fewer than the given number of blocks are present.

  • max_items (optional) - If set to a number greater than zero, hcldec will produce an error if more than the given number of blocks are present. This attribute must be greater than or equal to min_items if both are set.

block creates a validation constraint on the number of blocks of the given type that must be present.

block expects a single nested spec block, which is applied to the body of each matching block to produce the resulting list items.

block_set spec blocks

The block_set spec type behaves the same as block_list except that the result is in no specific order and any duplicate items are removed.

block_set {
  block_type = "log_file"

  object {
    attr "level" {
      type = string
    }
    attr "filename" {
      type     = string
      required = true
    }
  }
}

The contents of block_set are the same as for block_list.

block_map spec blocks

The block_map spec type is similar to block, but it accepts zero or more blocks of a specified type rather than requiring zero or one. The result is a JSON object, or possibly multiple nested JSON objects, whose properties are derived from the labels set on each matching block.

block_map {
  block_type = "log_file"
  labels = ["filename"]

  object {
    attr "level" {
      type     = string
      required = true
    }
  }
}

block_map spec blocks accept the following arguments:

  • block_type (required) - The block type name to expect within the HCL input file. This may be omitted when a default name selector is created by a parent object spec, if the input block type name should match the output JSON object property name.

  • labels (required) - A list of user-oriented block label names. Each entry in this list creates one level of object within the output value, and requires one additional block header label on any child block of this type. Block header labels are the quoted strings that appear after the block type name but before the opening {.

block creates a validation constraint on the number of labels that blocks of the given type must have.

block expects a single nested spec block, which is applied to the body of each matching block to produce the resulting map items.

block_attrs spec blocks

The block_attrs spec type is similar to an attr spec block of a map type, but it produces a map from the attributes of a block rather than from an attribute's expression.

block_attrs {
  block_type   = "variables"
  element_type = string
  required     = false
}

This allows a map with user-defined keys to be produced within block syntax, but due to the constraints of that syntax it also means that the user will be unable to dynamically-generate either individual key names using key expressions or the entire map value using a for expression.

block_attrs spec blocks accept the following arguments:

  • block_type (required) - The block type name to expect within the HCL input file. This may be omitted when a default name selector is created by a parent object spec, if the input block type name should match the output JSON object property name.

  • element_type (required) - The value type to require for each of the attributes within a matched block. The resulting value will be a JSON object whose property values are of this type.

  • required (optional) - If true, an error will be produced if a block of the given type is not present. If false -- the default -- an absent block will be indicated by producing null.

literal spec blocks

The literal spec type returns a given literal value, and creates no validation constraints. It is most commonly used with the default spec type to create a fallback value, but can also be used e.g. to fill out required properties in an object spec that do not correspond to any construct in the input configuration.

literal {
  value = "hello world"
}

literal spec blocks accept the following argument:

  • value (required) - The value to return. This attribute may be an expression that uses functions.

literal is a leaf spec type, so no nested spec blocks are permitted.

default spec blocks

The default spec type evaluates a sequence of nested specs in turn and returns the result of the first one that produces a non-null value. It creates no validation constraints of its own, but passes on the validation constraints from its first nested block.

default {
  attr {
    name = "private"
    type = bool
  }
  literal {
    value = false
  }
}

A default spec block must have at least one nested spec block, and should generally have at least two since otherwise the default wrapper is a no-op.

The second and any subsequent spec blocks are fallback specs. These exhibit their usual behavior but are not able to impose validation constraints on the current body since they are not evaluated unless all prior specs produce null as their result.

transform spec blocks

The transform spec type evaluates one nested spec and then evaluates a given expression with that nested spec result to produce a final value. It creates no validation constraints of its own, but passes on the validation constraints from its nested block.

transform {
  attr {
    name = "size_in_mb"
    type = number
  }

  # Convert result to a size in bytes
  result = nested * 1024 * 1024
}

transform spec blocks accept the following argument:

  • result (required) - The expression to evaluate on the result of the nested spec. The variable nested is defined when evaluating this expression, with the result value of the nested spec.

The result expression may use functions.

Predefined Variables

hcldec accepts values for variables to expose into the input file's expression scope as CLI options, and this is the most common way to pass values since it allows them to be dynamically populated by the calling application.

However, it's also possible to pre-define variables with constant values within a spec file, using the top-level variables block type:

variables {
  name = "Stephen"
}

Variables of the same name defined via the hcldec command line with override predefined variables of the same name, so this mechanism can also be used to provide defaults for variables that are overridden only in certain contexts.

Custom Functions

The spec can make arbitrary HCL functions available in the input file's expression scope, and thus allow simple computation within the input file, in addition to HCL's built-in operators.

Custom functions are defined in the spec file with the top-level function block type:

function "add_one" {
  params = [n]
  result = n + 1
}

Functions behave in a similar way to the transform spec type in that the given result attribute expression is evaluated with additional variables defined with the same names as the defined params.

The spec definition functions can be used within custom function expressions, allowing them to be optionally exposed into the input file:

function "upper" {
  params = [str]
  result = upper(str)
}

function "min" {
  params         = []
  variadic_param = nums
  result         = min(nums...)
}

Custom functions defined in the spec cannot be called from the spec itself.

Spec Definition Functions

Certain expressions within a specification may use the following functions. The documentation for each spec type above specifies where functions may be used.

  • abs(number) returns the absolute (positive) value of the given number.
  • coalesce(vals...) returns the first non-null value given.
  • concat(lists...) concatenates together all of the given lists to produce a new list.
  • hasindex(val, idx) returns true if the expression val[idx] could succeed.
  • int(number) returns the integer portion of the given number, rounding towards zero.
  • jsondecode(str) interprets the given string as JSON and returns the resulting data structure.
  • jsonencode(val) returns a JSON-serialized version of the given value.
  • length(collection) returns the number of elements in the given collection (list, set, map, object, or tuple).
  • lower(string) returns the given string with all uppercase letters converted to lowercase.
  • max(numbers...) returns the greatest of the given numbers.
  • min(numbers...) returns the smallest of the given numbers.
  • reverse(string) returns the given string with all of the characters in reverse order.
  • strlen(string) returns the number of characters in the given string.
  • substr(string, offset, length) returns the requested substring of the given string.
  • upper(string) returns the given string with all lowercase letters converted to uppercase.

Note that these expressions are valid in the context of the spec file, not the input. Functions can be exposed into the input file using Custom Functions within the spec, which may in turn refer to these spec definition functions.

Type Expressions

Type expressions are used to describe the expected type of an attribute, as an additional validation constraint.

A type expression uses primitive type names and compound type constructors. A type constructor builds a new type based on one or more type expression arguments.

The following type names and type constructors are supported:

  • any is a wildcard that accepts a value of any type. (In HCL terms, this is the dynamic pseudo-type.)
  • string is a Unicode string.
  • number is an arbitrary-precision floating point number.
  • bool is a boolean value (true or false)
  • list(element_type) constructs a list type with the given element type
  • set(element_type) constructs a set type with the given element type
  • map(element_type) constructs a map type with the given element type
  • object({name1 = element_type, name2 = element_type, ...}) constructs an object type with the given attribute types.
  • tuple([element_type, element_type, ...]) constructs a tuple type with the given element types. This can be used, for example, to require an array with a particular number of elements, or with elements of different types.

The above types are as defined by the HCL syntax-agnostic information model. After validation, values are lowered to JSON's type system, which is a subset of the HCL type system.

null is a valid value of any type, and not a type itself.