serverless-base64-encode-env-vars

A serverless plugin to base64 encode environment variables that are objects.

The Serverless framework forces all environment variables defined in a serverless.yml to be strings. It can be useful to define environment variables as objects for better organization and a simplified top-level environment.

Installation

npm install this package:

> npm install serverless-base64-encode-env-vars

Then, add serverless-base64-encode-env-vars to the plugins list in your serverless file:

plugins:
  - serverless-base64-encode-env-vars

Usage

This plugin is run when serverless deploy is executed. It searches for environment variables that are object types instead of strings and base64 encodes them before continuing on with the deploy process. The result of the encoding process is printed to stdout.

The encoded variables will need to be decoded within the codebase before they can be used as an object.

For example, decoding the value of an environment variable named KEY1:

const decodedKey1 = Buffer.from(process.env.KEY1, 'base64').toString('utf8');

This plugin also adds the encode option to the serverless command. Running serverless encode will essentially perform a dry-run of the plugin functionality to demonstrate the result of encoding the specified variables.

By default all environment variables listed in the provider and functions sections that are object types are encoded. If you only want to encode some object variables you can specify these under custom.encodeEnvObjects:

service: example

custom:
  encodeEnvObjects:
    - VAR1
    - VAR2

Here, VAR1 and VAR2 will be encoded but any other object variables will remain untouched.

Example

service: example

custom: 
  encodeEnvObjects:
    - VAR1
    - VAR4
  
plugins:
  - serverless-base64-encode-env-vars
  
provider:
  ...
  environment:
    VAR1:
      KEY1: value1
      KEY2: value2
      KEY3: value3
    VAR2: Normal string

functions:
  function1:
    handler: function1.main
    environment:
      VAR3: Just a string
      VAR4:
        KEY1: value1
        KEY2: value2
        KEY3: value3
      VAR5:
        KEY1: value1
    ...

Given the above example serverless.yml file, running serverless encode will print:

Notice that VAR1 and VAR4 have been encoded while VAR5 has not. This is because only VAR1 and VAR4 are listed in the custom.encodeEnvObjects list.

Other

This plugin is compatible with serverless-offline and will encode variables before starting.

License

MIT