Bricks Manifest File Format (bricks.json)

bricks.json is a metadata file used in Atomic Infrastructure™ orchestration.

Every blueprint must have a bricks.json file in its root directory that lists important information about the structure and behavior of that blueprint.

This page explains the structure of the blueprint manifest and the features they can include.

Examples

The following example manifests show the basic manifest structure and some commonly used features as a starting point for creating your own manifest:

Blueprint

{
  "name": "lonely_yellow_beaver",
  "description": "Generated using bricks tf-rescue",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "state": "managed",
  "props": {
    "bucket_name": {
      "description": "Fallback name for the bucket",
      "type": "string"
    }
  },
  "packages": [
    {
      "name": "aws_sqs_queue",
      "version": "1.0.1",
      "props": {}
    },
    {
      "name": "aws_simple_s3",
      "version": "0.1.1",
      "props": {
        "bucket_name": "Data.aws_sqs_queue.arn ?? Props.bucket_name"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Artifact

Blueprint Vs. Artifact

The native block refers to IaC files archived together with the bricks.json file. It indicates to the orchestrator that besides building relationships, there are files that have to be executed.

A common practice is to create a set of native blueprints and wrap them with a non-native blueprint to orchestrate them all.

On runtime, each native blueprint is planned and applied separately, maintaining a small blast radius and speeding up the runtime.

Reference

Keys	Description	Mandatory
name	Blueprint name. It can't contain spaces, special characters, and dashes.
description	Free text explanation of the blueprint.
version	Blueprint version. Must follow Go's module version numbering.
manifest_version	bricks.json schema version. Set to 1.
managed	Indicate whether Bluebricks manages the state of the blueprint.
repository	An object that describes the codebase location. Used for development.
repository.type	Repository vendor, currently, constant as git.
repository.url	Codebase URL to be used as reference.
props	Blueprint external API definition. Defines what properties are open for manipulation.
props.{{name}}	Property name, must be mapped to a IaC variable.
props.{{name}}.type	Type of property. Supported types: string, number, all
props.{{name}}.default	Default value of property. Overwritten by user-input.
props.{{name}}.description	Free text explanation of the property.
outs	Defines what outputs the package generates at the end of the execution.
outs.{{name}}	output name
outs.{{name}}.type	Type of output. Supported types: string, number, all
outs.{{name}}.value	Value of output.
outs.{{name}}.description	Free text explanation of the output.
packages	Nested Packages (Blueprints or Artifacts). Mandatory for Blueprints
packages.[].name	Blueprint name. Added automatically using bp add command.
packages.[].version	Blueprint version. Added automatically using bp add command.
packages.[].props	The blueprint properties. Defines the Semantic Trigger™ between sibling blueprints and default values to the nested blueprints.
packages.[].path	A URL pointed to the nested blueprint. Used by bp add-repo command.
native	IaC statement node. See Blueprint Vs. Artifact section. Mandatory for Artifacts.
native.type	Type of Infrastructure as Code, enum-based value - use bp create command.
native.path	Relative path to the IaC files.