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Configuration

You can configure the DBOS Transact runtime 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 npx 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:

Database​

The database section is used to set up the connection to the database. DBOS currently only supports Postgres-compatible databases. All fields are optional. Note that applications deployed to DBOS Cloud do not use the connection parameters here, but instead are automatically connected to your cloud database.

  • hostname: Database server hostname. Defaults to localhost.
  • port: Database server port. Defaults to 5432.
  • username: Username with which to connect to the database server. Defaults to postgres.
  • password: Password with which to connect to the database server. We recommend using an environment variable for this field, instead of plain text. Defaults to the PGPASSWORD environment variable.
  • app_db_name: Name of the application database. If not supplied, the application name (with dashes replaced with underscores for compatibility) is used instead.
  • sys_db_name: 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.
  • app_db_client: Client to use for connecting to the application database. Must be one of knex, drizzle, typeorm, or prisma. Defaults to knex. The client specified here is the one used in TransactionContext.
  • ssl_ca: 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.
  • connectionTimeoutMillis: Database connection timeout in milliseconds. Defaults to 3000.
  • local_suffix: Whether to suffix app_db_name with '_local'. Set to true when doing local development using a DBOS Cloud database.
  • migrate: A list of commands to run to apply your application's schema to the database. We recommend using a TypeScript-based migration tool as documented here.
  • rollback: A list of commands to run to roll back the last batch of schema migrations.

Example:

database:
  hostname: 'localhost'
  port: 5432
  username: 'postgres'
  password: ${PGPASSWORD}
  app_db_client: 'knex'
  migrate: ['npx knex migrate:latest']
  rollback: ['npx knex migrate:rollback']
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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 to run to start your application. For example, if your main function is compiled to dist/main.js, your start command would be node dist/main.js. Mutually exclusive with entrypoints.
  • entrypoints (optional): The compiled JavaScript files where DBOS looks for your application's code. This should only be used if you are using scheduled workflows, Kafka consumers, or DBOS HTTP decorators in files that are not referenced by your start command. At startup, the DBOS runtime automatically loads all classes exported from these files, serving their endpoints and registering their decorated functions. Defaults to [dist/operations.js].
  • port (optional): The port from which to serve your functions. Defaults to 3000. Using npx dbos start -p <port> overrides this config parameter. Only used if you are using the DBOS HTTP decorators.
  • setup: Setup commands to run before your application is built in DBOS Cloud. Used only in DBOS Cloud. Documentation here

Example:

runtimeConfig:
  port: 3000 # (default)
  entrypoints:
    - 'dist/operations.js' # (default)

HTTP​

This section is used to specify DBOS HTTP parameters. Only used if you are using the DBOS HTTP decorators.

  • cors_middleware (optional): Whether to allow cross-origin requests (via CORS middleware). Default is true.
  • credentials (optional): If cors_middleware is enabled, whether to allow cross-origin requests that include credentials. Default is true.
  • allowed_origins (optional): If cors_middleware is enabled, a list of origins/domains that are permitted to make cross-origin requests. Default is to allow any origin.

Example:

http:
  cors_middleware: true
  credentials: true
  allowed_origins:
    - 'https://partner.com'
    - 'https://app.internal.com'

Application​

Applications can optionally use the application configuration to define custom properties as key-value pairs. These properties can be retrieved from any context via the getConfig method.

Example:

application:
  PAYMENTS_SERVICE: 'https://stripe.com/payment'

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 process.env like any other environment variables. For example, the WEB_PORTAL variable set below could be retrieved from an application as process.env.WEB_PORTAL. Environment variables configured here are automatically exported to and set in DBOS Cloud.

Example:

env:
  WEB_PORTAL: 'https://example.com'

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'. Using npx dbos start -l <logLevel> overrides this config parameter.
  • addContextMetadata: Enables the addition of contextual information, such as workflow identity UUID, to each log entry. Defaults to true.
  • silent: Silences the logger. Defaults to false.

Example:

telemetry:
  logs:
    logLevel: 'info' # info (default) | debug | warn | emerg | alert | crit | error
    addContextMetadata: true # true (default) | false
    silent: false # false (default) | true

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 GitHub. 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://raw.githubusercontent.com/dbos-inc/dbos-ts/main/dbos-config.schema.json