Skip to main content
Version: 0.9

Schema Definition

Introduction​

The core scenario of KCL is write configurations and constraints. and a core feature of KCL is modeling. The keyword schema in KCL can be used to define structures and constraints, such as attribute types, default values, range check, and various other constraints. In addition, structures defined with KCL schema can be used in turn to verify implementation, validate input (JSON, YAML and other structured data) or generate code (multilingual structures, OpenAPI, and so on).

Use KCL for Defining Structures and Constraints​

0. Prerequisite​

1. Get the Example​

Firstly, let's get the example.

git clone https://github.com/kcl-lang/kcl-lang.io.git/
cd ./kcl-lang.io/examples/definition

We can run the following command to show the config.

cat main.k

The output is

import .app_module  # A relative path import

app: app_module.App {
    domainType = "Standard"
    containerPort = 80
    volumes = [
        {
            mountPath = "/tmp"
        }
    ]
    services = [
        {
            clusterIP = "None"
            $type = "ClusterIP"
        }
    ]
}

We put the app model into a separate app_module.k, then we can use the import keyword in main.k for modular management, such as the following file structure

.
├── app_module.k
└── main.k

The content of app_module.k is

schema App:
    domainType: "Standard" | "Customized" | "Global"
    containerPort: int
    volumes: [Volume]
    services: [Service]

    check:
        1 <= containerPort <= 65535

schema Service:
    clusterIP: str
    $type: str

    check:
        clusterIP == "None" if $type == "ClusterIP"

schema Volume:
    container: str = "*"  # The default value of `container` is "*"
    mountPath: str

    check:
        mountPath not in ["/", "/boot", "/home", "dev", "/etc", "/root"]

In the above file, we use the schema keyword to define three models App, Service and Volume. The App model has four attributes domainType, containerPort, volumes and services, where

  • The type of domainType is a string literal union type, similar to an "enumeration", which means that the value of domainType can only take one of "Standard", "Customized" and "Global".
  • The type of containerPort is an integer (int). In addition, we use the check keyword to define its value range from 1 to 65535.
  • The type of services is Service schema list type, and we use ? to mark it as an optional attribute.
  • The type of volumes is a Volume schema list type, and we use ? to mark it as an optional attribute.

We can get the YAML output of the app instance by using the following command line

kcl main.k

The output is

app:
  domainType: Standard
  containerPort: 80
  volumes:
    - container: "*"
      mountPath: /tmp
  services:
    - clusterIP: None
      type: ClusterIP

2. Output Configuration​

We can still get the YAML output of the app instance by using the following command line

kcl main.k

The output is

app:
  domainType: Standard
  containerPort: 80
  volumes:
    - container: "*"
      mountPath: /tmp
  services:
    - clusterIP: None
      type: ClusterIP

Summary​

KCL is a language for defining configurations and constraints, with a core feature of modeling using the schema keyword. This allows for the definition of structures with attributes, default values, range checks, and other constraints. Structures defined using KCL schema can be used to validate data, or generate code. The example demonstrates how to define models using schema, import them for modular management, and output the YAML configuration of an instance of the defined structure using the kcl command.