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Configuration

You can configure DBOS with a configuration file. Valid configuration files must be:

  • Named dbos-config.yaml
  • Located at the application package root.
  • Valid YAML conforming to the schema described below.
info

You can use environment variables for configuration values through the syntax key: ${VALUE}. They are expanded during dbos start or dbos-cloud app deploy and passed to the app securely. We strongly recommend using environment variables for secrets like the database password, as demonstrated below.

Fields​

Each dbos-config.yaml file has the following fields and sections:

  • language: The application language field. Must be set to python for Python applications.
  • database: The database section.
  • runtimeConfig: The runtime section.
  • env: The environment variables section.
  • telemetry: The telemetry section.

Database​

The database section is used to set up the connection to the database. DBOS currently only supports Postgres-compatible databases. Every field is required unless otherwise specified.

  • hostname: Database server hostname. For local deployment only, not used in DBOS Cloud.
  • port: Database server port. For local deployment only, not used in DBOS Cloud.
  • username: Username with which to connect to the database server. For local deployment only, not used in DBOS Cloud.
  • password: Password with which to connect to the database server. We recommend using an environment variable for this field, instead of plain text. For local deployment only, not used in DBOS Cloud.
  • app_db_name: (optional): Name of the application database. If not supplied, the application name (with dashes replaced with underscores for compatibility) is used instead.
  • sys_db_name (optional): Name of the system database in which DBOS stores internal state. Defaults to {app_db_name}_dbos_sys. For local deployment only, not used in DBOS Cloud.
  • ssl_ca (optional): If using SSL/TLS to securely connect to a database, path to an SSL root certificate file. Equivalent to the sslrootcert connection parameter in psql.
  • local_suffix (optional): Whether to suffix app_db_name with '_local'. Set to true when doing local development using a DBOS Cloud database. For local development only, not used in DBOS Cloud.
  • migrate (optional): A list of commands to run to apply your application's schema to the database.

Example:

database:
  hostname: 'localhost'
  port: 5432
  username: 'postgres'
  password: ${PGPASSWORD}
  migrate:
    - alembic upgrade head
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The role with which DBOS connects to Postgres must have CREATE privileges on both the application database and system database if they already exist. If either does not exist, the Postgres role must have the CREATEDB privilege to create them.

Runtime​

This section is used to specify DBOS runtime parameters.

  • start: The command(s) with which to start your app. Called from dbos start.
  • setup: Setup commands to run before your application is built in DBOS Cloud. Used only in DBOS Cloud. Documentation here

Example:

runtimeConfig:
  start:
    - "fastapi run"

Environment Variables​

Applications can optionally use the env configuration to define environment variables. These are set in your application before its code is initialized and can be retrieved from os.environ like any other environment variables. For example, the WEB_PORTAL variable set below could be retrieved from an application as os.environ["WEB_PORTAL"]. Environment variables configured here are automatically exported to and set in DBOS Cloud.

Example:

env:
  WEB_PORTAL: 'https://example.com'
  portal_url=os.environ.get('WEB_PORTAL', '')

Application​

Applications can optionally keep a hierarchy of configuration information in the application section of the configuration file. The schema for this section is defined by the application. The configuration is available to your application when its code is initialized.

Example:

application:
  service_url: 'https://service.org'
  service_config:
    user: "user"
    password: "password"
url = DBOS.config["application"]["service_url"]
pass = DBOS.config["application"]["service_config"]["password"]

Telemetry​

You can use the configuration file to tune the behavior of DBOS logging facility. Note all options in this section are optional and will, if not specified, use the default values indicated in the example below.

Logs​

  • logLevel: Filters, by severity, what logs should be printed. Defaults to 'INFO'.

Example:

telemetry:
  logs:
    logLevel: 'INFO'

OTLPExporter​

Configures the Transact OpenTelemetry exporter.

  • logsEndpoint: The endpoint to which logs are sent.
  • tracesEndpoint: The endpoint to which traces are sent.

The Transact exporter uses protobuf over HTTP. An example configuration for a local Jaeger instance with default configuration is shown below.

Example:

telemetry:
  OTLPExporter:
    logsEndpoint: 'http://localhost:4318/v1/logs'
    tracesEndpoint: 'http://localhost:4318/v1/traces'

Configuration Schema File​

There is a schema file available for the DBOS configuration file schema in our GitHub repo. This schema file can be used to provide an improved YAML editing experience for developer tools that leverage it. For example, the Visual Studio Code RedHat YAML extension provides tooltips, statement completion and real-time validation for editing DBOS config files. This extension provides multiple ways to associate a YAML file with its schema. The easiest is to simply add a comment with a link to the schema at the top of the config file:

# yaml-language-server: $schema=https://github.com/dbos-inc/dbos-transact-py/blob/main/dbos/dbos-config.schema.json

Accessing Configuration From Code​

The information in dbos-config.yaml can be accessed from python code using DBOS.config.

lang = DBOS.config["language"]  # "python"
url = DBOS.config["application"]["service_url"]