Reference on Orchard

CLI

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

CLI reference#

orchard <command> [arguments] [flags]

Global flags#

Flag	Type	Default	Description
`--var key=value`	string map	—	Override a scenario variable. Repeatable: `--var a=1 --var b=2`.
`--no-color`	bool	`false`	Disable colored output.

Environment variables

Name	Effect
`NO_COLOR`	If set to any value, disables colored output. Equivalent to `--no-color`.

`orchard init`#

orchard init [directory]

Scaffold a new Orchard project with a starter scenario and component.

Argument	Description
`[directory]`	Where to create the files. Defaults to `.`. Created if it doesn’t exist.

What it creates

HCL schema

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

HCL schema reference#

Every block and attribute Orchard’s parser accepts. The two authoring contexts are scenario files and component files.

Scenario files#

A scenario file contains exactly one scenario block.

`scenario`#

scenario "<name>" {
 description = "..." # optional
 tags = ["a", "b"] # optional

 required_providers { ... }
 variable "<name>" { ... }
 provider "<name>" { ... }
 component "<type>" "<name>" { ... }
 action "<type>" "<name>" { ... }
 output "<name>" { ... }
}

A single HCL file may contain multiple scenario blocks. When it does, orchard run and orchard plan require --scenario <name> to pick one. Single-scenario files work without the flag.

Expressions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Expression reference#

Orchard uses HCL expressions with a cty type system. This page covers the reference namespaces, type expressions, and available functions.

Reference namespaces#

Five reference namespaces are available inside expressions:

Form	Scope	Available when
`var.<name>`	Scenario (or component) variables.	Immediately — resolved up front.
`action.<type>.<name>.<output>`	Action outputs.	After the referenced action completes.
`component.<type>.<name>.<output>`	Component instance outputs.	After the component resolves.
`var.<name>` (inside a component)	The component’s own variables.	Immediately, scoped to the component.
`self.<output>`	The current action’s own outputs.	Inside `lifecycle { teardown { } }` blocks only.

Variable references#

provider "postgres" {
 dsn = var.dsn
}

action "postgres_query" "insert" {
 query = "INSERT INTO t (name) VALUES ('${var.name}')"
}

Variable references are resolved at plan time. They cannot participate in the dependency graph — if you need ordering, reference an action or component output instead.

Functions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Functions#

Orchard exposes 56 functions in every expression — variable defaults, provider configs, component inputs, action attributes, scenario outputs, component outputs, and teardown bodies. All names use lowercase compound words with no separators (jsonencode, timeadd, timeseries, …).

Functions marked with (impure) may return different values on each call. That’s intentional — scenarios are single-shot imperative runs, not convergent plans.

Collections#

`concat`#

concat(lists...) → list

Concatenate two or more lists into one.

Parameter	Type	Description
`lists...`	`list`	Variadic.

concat(["a"], ["b", "c"])

→ ["a", "b", "c"]

Reference on Orchard

CLI

CLI reference#

Global flags#

orchard init#

HCL schema

HCL schema reference#

Scenario files#

scenario#

Expressions

Expression reference#

Reference namespaces#

Variable references#

Functions

Functions#

Collections#

concat#

`orchard init`#

`scenario`#

`concat`#