Config Standards Skill

Standards and patterns for SDD configuration management.

Principles

1. Single source of truth - All config lives in components/config/
2. Environment layering - envs/default/ → envs/{env}/ merge order
3. Minimal env vars - Only SDD_CONFIG_PATH allowed for servers
4. Secrets as references - Config contains K8s Secret names, not values
5. Fail fast - Validate config at startup, crash on invalid
6. Environment agnosticism - Components never know which environment they're in

Directory Structure

components/config/
├── package.json                # Workspace package for type imports
├── tsconfig.json               # TypeScript config
├── envs/
│   ├── default/
│   │   └── config.yaml         # Base configuration (always merged first)
│   ├── local/
│   │   └── config.yaml         # Local development overrides
│   ├── staging/
│   │   └── config.yaml         # Staging overrides (add as needed)
│   └── production/
│       └── config.yaml         # Production overrides (add as needed)
├── schemas/
│   └── config.schema.json      # JSON Schema for validation
└── types/
    ├── index.ts                # Re-exports all config types
    └── {component}.ts          # Per-component type definitions

Naming Conventions

• Config sections match component names
• Use kebab-case for all names
• Secret references end with Secret suffix (e.g., passwordSecret)

# Section names match component names
task-service:            # -> components/servers/task-service/
  port: 3000

task-dashboard:          # -> components/webapps/task-dashboard/
  apiBaseUrl: /api

taskdb:                  # -> components/databases/taskdb/
  host: localhost

Config Structure

# envs/default/config.yaml

global: {}  # Reserved for future cross-cutting concerns

# Each component gets a section matching its directory name
server-task-service:
  port: 3000
  probesPort: 9090
  logLevel: info
  database:
    host: db.internal
    port: 5432
    name: taskdb
    user: app
    passwordSecret: task-service-db-credentials
    pool: 10

webapp-task-dashboard:
  apiBaseUrl: /api
  features:
    darkMode: true

Environment Agnosticism

Components are environment-agnostic. Server, frontend, database, contract components never know which environment they're running in. They receive config values and use them.

Only two places know about environments:

1. components/config/ - has envs/local/, envs/production/, etc.
2. components/helm-*/ - has values-local.yaml, values-production.yaml, etc.

A server component:

• ✅ Reads config.port and listens on it
• ✅ Reads config.database.host and connects to it
• ❌ Never checks "am I in production?"
• ❌ Never has if (env === 'local') logic

Type Definitions

Types are defined in components/config/types/:

// types/server.ts
export type ServerConfig = Readonly<{
  port?: number;
  probesPort?: number;
  logLevel?: 'debug' | 'info' | 'warn' | 'error';
  database?: Readonly<{
    host?: string;
    port?: number;
    name?: string;
    user?: string;
    passwordSecret?: string;
    pool?: number;
  }>;
}>;

Components import types via workspace package:

// In server component
import type { ServerConfig } from '@my-project/config/types';

Schema Management

• Main schema (schemas/config.schema.json) validates all config
• Start minimal, extend as config evolves
• Schema is validated at generate time AND at runtime

{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "global": { "type": "object" },
    "server-task-service": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "port": { "type": "number" },
        "logLevel": { "enum": ["debug", "info", "warn", "error"] }
      }
    }
  }
}

Local Development Workflow

1. Add config property to components/config/envs/default/config.yaml
2. Add override (if needed) to components/config/envs/local/config.yaml
3. Update schema in components/config/schemas/config.schema.json
4. Update types in components/config/types/{component}.ts
5. Generate merged config:

   /sdd I want to generate config
   

6. Start server:

   SDD_CONFIG_PATH=./local-config.yaml npm start
   

Secret Handling

Config contains secret references (K8s Secret names), not values:

# In config YAML
server-task-service:
  database:
    host: db.production.internal
    passwordSecret: "task-service-db-credentials"  # K8s Secret name

At deploy time, Helm maps these references to actual secrets:

# In helm-task-service/templates/deployment.yaml
env:
  - name: DB_PASSWORD
    valueFrom:
      secretKeyRef:
        name: {{ .Values.config.database.passwordSecret }}
        key: password

The application reads DB_PASSWORD from environment, not from config YAML.

Gitignore

Generated config files should be gitignored:

# Generated config files in server components (never commit)
components/server-*/local-config.yaml
components/server-*/*.schema.json

All envs/ directories ARE committed - they contain references only.

NODE_ENV Handling

NODE_ENV is an infrastructure exception, not application config. It exists because third-party libraries check it for optimizations.

Application code NEVER reads NODE_ENV. It's injected by Helm for library behavior only.

Environment	NODE_ENV	Set By
Local dev	Not set	(libraries default to development)
K8s staging	development	Helm values
K8s production	production	Helm values

Validation Rules

1. Required fields - Schema can mark fields as required
2. Type checking - Schema validates types (string, number, object)
3. Enum values - Schema constrains to allowed values
4. Pattern matching - Schema can validate string patterns

Validation happens:

• At /sdd I want to generate config time (CLI)
• At server startup (runtime)

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Input / Output

This skill defines no input parameters or structured output.