Runtime Context

2 min read

Orkestra injects a set of runtime facts into every template expression under the .ork namespace. These are constant for the lifetime of the process — set once at startup, available everywhere a {{ }} expression is evaluated: status fields, endpoint templates, notes, mutation rules, when: conditions.

Not notes, not sentinels
.ork.* facts are not Orkestra notes and not template sentinels. Notes are pure, user-defined functions declared in notes.functions. .ork.* are process-level constants — some read from the environment at startup (e.g. inPod probes the pod filesystem), but once set they never change for the life of the deployment. Every reconcile, every CR, every template expression sees the same values.
notes:
  functions:
    - name: reconcilerEndpoint
      expression: >
        {{ if .ork.inPod }}
          http://my-reconciler.default.svc.cluster.local:8025/reconcile
        {{ else }}
          http://localhost:8025/reconcile
        {{ end }}

operatorBox:
  reconcile:
    remote:
      endpoint: "{{ reconcilerEndpoint }}"

Fields

KeyTypeDescription
.ork.inPodbooltrue when Orkestra is running inside a Kubernetes pod; false during local development.
.ork.namespacestringKubernetes namespace Orkestra is deployed in (e.g. orkestra-system).
.ork.versionstringRunning Orkestra version string (e.g. v0.7.18).

Discovery

ork validate --full prints the runtime context alongside the RBAC and dependency graph:

Runtime context (.ork.*)
  .ork.inPod    true when Orkestra is running inside a Kubernetes pod
  .ork.namespace    namespace Orkestra is deployed in
  .ork.version      running Orkestra version string

Common patterns

Endpoint that adapts between local dev and in-cluster:

notes:
  functions:
    - name: myServiceEndpoint
      expression: >
        {{ if .ork.inPod }}
          http://my-svc.{{ .ork.namespace }}.svc.cluster.local/reconcile
        {{ else }}
          http://localhost:9000/reconcile
        {{ end }}

Status field that exposes the operator namespace:

operatorBox:
  status:
    fields:
      - path: operatorNamespace
        value: "{{ .ork.namespace }}"

When condition that only applies outside the cluster:

when:
  - field: "{{ .ork.inPod }}"
    equals: false

Where to go next

  • notes — user-defined functions that can wrap .ork.* expressions
  • reconcile.remote — endpoint: template support