Motifs

A Motif is a reusable resource primitive. It declares named inputs and contributes resources, status fields, and admission rules to any CRD that imports it. A Motif has no CRD binding of its own — it is a pattern waiting to be composed.

Pattern directory

postgres/
  motif.yaml    # required — the Motif declaration
  README.md     # optional — shown in registry UI
  example/
    katalog.yaml  # optional — example Katalog importing this Motif

motif.yaml is the only required file.

Writing a Motif

See full description in Writing your first Motif.

Publishing

Motifs publish to ORK_MOTIFS_REGISTRY (default: ghcr.io/orkspace/orkestra-registry/patterns/motifs):

ork push postgres:v16 ./motifs/postgres/

If a Katalog pattern directory contains a motif.yaml, ork push pushes both — the Katalog to the katalog registry and the Motif to the motif registry — in a single command.

Importing into a Katalog

There are two import levels. Which one you use depends on what you need from the Motif.

spec.imports — Katalog-wide profiles

Use this when the Motif declares profiles: that should be available to every CRD in the Katalog. Only the profiles: block is consumed here; resources, status, and admission in the Motif are ignored at this level.

spec:
  imports:
    - motif: ./motifs/org-standards.yaml
    - motif: oci://ghcr.io/myorg/motifs/resource-profiles:v1

  crds:
    application:
      operatorBox:
        onCreate:
          deployments:
            - resources:
                profile: org-standard    # profile from spec.imports motif
    database:
      operatorBox:
        onCreate:
          deployments:
            - resources:
                profile: org-standard    # same profile, available to all CRDs

spec.crds[name].imports — CRD-scoped resources

Use this when the Motif declares resources, status fields, or admission rules that should apply to a specific CRD. Profiles in the Motif are ignored at this level.

spec:
  crds:
    myapp:
      imports:
        - motif: oci://ghcr.io/orkspace/orkestra-registry/patterns/motifs/postgres:v16
          oci: true
          with:
            image: "{{ .spec.database.image }}"
            volumeSize: "{{ .spec.storage | default \"10Gi\" }}"

with: values are Go templates evaluated in the CR’s reconcile context. Required inputs not present in with: are caught at startup — not at reconcile time.

Using the same Motif at both levels

A Motif that declares both profiles and resources can be imported at both levels simultaneously. Each import point takes only what belongs there:

spec:
  imports:
    - motif: ./org-standards.yaml   # takes: profiles

  crds:
    application:
      imports:
        - motif: ./org-standards.yaml   # takes: resources, admission

Conditional resources

A Motif can declare resources that only apply when a specific input is set:

resources:
  services:
    - name: "{{ .metadata.name }}-admin"
      port: 5050
      when:
        - field: "{{ inputs.adminEnabled }}"
          equals: "true"

If adminEnabled is not provided or is "false", Orkestra skips this resource entirely. Conditions are evaluated at reconcile time against the bound input values.

Composing multiple Motifs

A Katalog can import any number of Motifs. Each is independent — resources don’t conflict because each uses .metadata.name as a prefix:

spec:
  crds:
    platform:
      imports:
        - motif: postgres:v16
          with:
            image: "{{ .spec.db.image }}"
        - motif: redis:v7
          with:
            image: redis:7-alpine
            volumeSize: "{{ .spec.cache.size }}"