Normalize

2 min read

normalize runs first in the reconcile pipeline — before mutation, validation, and every template expression in onCreate, onReconcile, and status. It rewrites the in-memory spec into a single canonical shape that all downstream stages rely on, without touching the stored CR in etcd.

Accept many, work with one. Users write their CR in whatever shape is natural to them. Normalize collapses that into one internal representation. Every rule, every template, every status field sees the normalized result — no branching, no defensive coding scattered across the Katalog.

Declaration

normalize:
  spec:
    fieldName: "{{ template expression }}"

Keys are dot-notation paths into spec. Values are template expressions evaluated against the raw CR — the object as it arrived from the API server, before any normalization of other fields. Results overwrite the corresponding fields in the in-memory spec copy. Fields not declared are left exactly as they are.

Where normalize sits

informer cache → DeepCopy → normalize → mutation → validation → reconcile
                                 ↑
                     Sees the raw CR. Rewrites in-memory.
                     Everything downstream sees the result.

See Reconcile Pipeline for the full sequence.

Try it

Four runnable examples, each focused on one pattern:

ork init --pack use-cases
cd normalize/01-string-cleanup            # toLower, trimSpace, domain cleanup
cd normalize/02-image-normalization       # bare image → registry.internal/name:tag
cd normalize/03-defaults-without-webhook  # default in normalize = mutation without gateway
cd normalize/04-webservice                # all patterns combined: secrets, configmap, forEach
ork run

Each example has two CRs — one messy, one clean — that both reconcile to identical downstream resources.

Where to go next

  • Normalize vs Mutation — when to use each, and how default in normalize replaces webhook-based defaulting
  • Patterns — format unification, string cleanup, type coercion, field assembly, and more
  • Reference — notes table, limitations, declaration syntax