Profiles

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What Profiles Do

Profiles are the launch-time configuration layer for a suite. They allow the same suite topology to run differently across environments such as local development, CI, staging, canary, or event-specific scenarios.

A profile can:

• set environment variables for the run
• select module hints and observability settings
• override individual service env vars
• declare secret-backed env vars with secretRefs
• inherit from another profile via extendsId

Profile Sources

BabelSuite has two profile representations:

Source	Location	Purpose
Workspace files	examples/oci-suites/<suite>/profiles/*.yaml	Package-owned defaults, runtime overlays, and inline secretRefs that travel with the suite
Managed records	babelsuite-profiles.yaml / profiles API	Operator-managed overlays, secret bindings, UI-editable

Workspace files drive the initial profile list for each suite. Managed records support creation, updates, deletion, and default selection through the UI and API.

Workspace Profile Shape

Common checked-in profile shape:

name: Local Debug
description: Verbose logs, local secrets, and relaxed timeouts.
default: true
runtime:
  suite: payment-suite
  repository: localhost:5000/core-platform/payment-suite
  profileFile: local.yaml
modules:
  - postgres
  - kafka
observability:
  logs: structured
  traces: enabled
  metrics: enabled
secretRefs:
  - key: DB_PASSWORD
    provider: Vault
    ref: kv/payment-suite/staging-db-password
env:
  PAYMENTS_API_BASE_URL: https://payments.staging.company.test
services:
  payment_gateway:
    env:
      API_PORT: 8080

Workspace suite discovery uses name, description, default, runtime.repository, runtime.profileFile, and modules from this structure. Profile loading and execution also consume optional env, services.<step>.env, and secretRefs blocks from the same YAML body.

Managed Profile Record Fields

Profiles stored via the API expose:

Field	Description
id	Record identifier
name	Display name
fileName	YAML filename (must end in .yaml or .yml)
description	Optional description
scope	Suite scope this profile belongs to
yaml	The profile YAML payload (validated on write)
secretRefs	Resolved secret references (key, provider, ref) exposed to the UI/API
default	Whether this is the default profile for the suite
extendsId	ID of a parent profile to inherit from
launchable	Whether this profile appears in the launch UI
updatedAt	Last modified timestamp

The yaml payload typically carries:

secretRefs:
  - key: API_TOKEN
    provider: Vault
    ref: kv/service/api-token
env:
  LOG_LEVEL: debug
  TELEMETRY_PROFILE: verbose
services:
  api:
    env:
      API_MODE: strict

Default Selection

At launch time:

1. The explicitly chosen profile wins.
2. Otherwise the profile marked default: true is used.
3. Otherwise the first available profile is used.

Suite Dependency Profiles

Nested suite dependencies can declare their own runtime profile in dependencies.yaml:

dependencies:
  auth-module:
    ref: localhost:5000/core-platform/identity-broker
    version: 1.2.0
    profile: canary.yaml

That selected profile travels with the imported suite's resolved topology and step specs. The resolver reads the child suite's profiles/canary.yaml and applies its env: and per-service services.<step>.env: overlays to imported nodes before execution.

Managed Profile Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Action
GET	/api/v1/profiles/suites	List suite profile summaries
GET	/api/v1/profiles/suites/:suiteId	Get profiles for one suite
POST	/api/v1/profiles/suites/:suiteId	Create a profile
PUT	/api/v1/profiles/suites/:suiteId/:profileId	Update a profile
DELETE	/api/v1/profiles/suites/:suiteId/:profileId	Delete a profile
POST	/api/v1/profiles/suites/:suiteId/:profileId/default	Mark as default

See API for the full route reference.

Related Pages

• Profile Runtime Reference - workspace vs managed profiles in depth, runtime overlays, dependency profile flow
• Suites - how profiles relate to suite packages and launch options
• Dependency Manifests - how dependency profile and inputs travel with nested suites