Common Expression Language in Kubernetes
The Common Expression Language (CEL) is used in the Kubernetes API to declare validation rules, policy rules, and other constraints or conditions.
CEL expressions are evaluated directly in the API server, making CEL a convenient alternative to out-of-process mechanisms, such as webhooks, for many extensibility use cases. Your CEL expressions continue to execute so long as the control plane's API server component remains available.
Language overview
The CEL language has a straightforward syntax that is similar to the expressions in C, C++, Java, JavaScript and Go.
CEL was designed to be embedded into applications. Each CEL "program" is a single expression that evaluates to a single value. CEL expressions are typically short "one-liners" that inline well into the string fields of Kubernetes API resources.
Inputs to a CEL program are "variables". Each Kubernetes API field that contains
CEL declares in the API documentation which variables are available to use for
that field. For example, in the x-kubernetes-validations[i].rules
field of
CustomResourceDefinitions, the self
and oldSelf
variables are available and
refer to the previous and current state of the custom resource data to be
validated by the CEL expression. Other Kubernetes API fields may declare
different variables. See the API documentation of the API fields to learn which
variables are available for that field.
Example CEL expressions:
Rule | Purpose |
---|---|
self.minReplicas <= self.replicas && self.replicas <= self.maxReplicas | Validate that the three fields defining replicas are ordered appropriately |
'Available' in self.stateCounts | Validate that an entry with the 'Available' key exists in a map |
(self.list1.size() == 0) != (self.list2.size() == 0) | Validate that one of two lists is non-empty, but not both |
self.envars.filter(e, e.name = 'MY_ENV').all(e, e.value.matches('^[a-zA-Z]*$')) | Validate the 'value' field of a listMap entry where key field 'name' is 'MY_ENV' |
has(self.expired) && self.created + self.ttl < self.expired | Validate that 'expired' date is after a 'create' date plus a 'ttl' duration |
self.health.startsWith('ok') | Validate a 'health' string field has the prefix 'ok' |
self.widgets.exists(w, w.key == 'x' && w.foo < 10) | Validate that the 'foo' property of a listMap item with a key 'x' is less than 10 |
type(self) == string ? self == '99%' : self == 42 | Validate an int-or-string field for both the int and string cases |
self.metadata.name == 'singleton' | Validate that an object's name matches a specific value (making it a singleton) |
self.set1.all(e, !(e in self.set2)) | Validate that two listSets are disjoint |
self.names.size() == self.details.size() && self.names.all(n, n in self.details) | Validate the 'details' map is keyed by the items in the 'names' listSet |
self.details.all(key, key.matches('^[a-zA-Z]*$')) | Validate the keys of the 'details' map |
self.details.all(key, self.details[key].matches('^[a-zA-Z]*$')) | Validate the values of the 'details' map |
CEL options, language features, and libraries
CEL is configured with the following options, libraries and language features, introduced at the specified Kubernetes versions:
CEL option, library or language feature | Included | Availablity |
---|---|---|
Standard macros | has , all , exists , exists_one , map , filter | All Kubernetes versions |
Standard functions | See official list of standard definitions | All Kubernetes versions |
Homogeneous Aggregate Literals | All Kubernetes versions | |
Default UTC Time Zone | All Kubernetes versions | |
Eagerly Validate Declarations | All Kubernetes versions | |
Extended strings library, Version 1 | charAt , indexOf , lastIndexOf , lowerAscii , upperAscii , replace , split , join , substring , trim | All Kubernetes versions |
Kubernetes list library | See Kubernetes list library | All Kubernetes versions |
Kubernetes regex library | See Kubernetes regex library | All Kubernetes versions |
Kubernetes URL library | See Kubernetes URL library | All Kubernetes versions |
Kubernetes authorizer library | See Kubernetes authorizer library | All Kubernetes versions |
Kubernetes quantity library | See Kubernetes quantity library | Kubernetes versions 1.29+ |
CEL optional types | See CEL optional types | Kubernetes versions 1.29+ |
CEL CrossTypeNumericComparisons | See CEL CrossTypeNumericComparisons | Kubernetes versions 1.29+ |
CEL functions, features and language settings support Kubernetes control plane rollbacks. For example, CEL Optional Values was introduced at Kubernetes 1.29 and so only API servers at that version or newer will accept write requests to CEL expressions that use CEL Optional Values. However, when a cluster is rolled back to Kubernetes 1.28 CEL expressions using "CEL Optional Values" that are already stored in API resources will continue to evaluate correctly.
Kubernetes CEL libraries
In additional to the CEL community libraries, Kubernetes includes CEL libraries that are available everywhere CEL is used in Kubernetes.
Kubernetes list library
The list library includes indexOf
and lastIndexOf
, which work similar to the
strings functions of the same names. These functions either the first or last
positional index of the provided element in the list.
The list library also includes min
, max
and sum
. Sum is supported on all
number types as well as the duration type. Min and max are supported on all
comparable types.
isSorted
is also provided as a convenience function and is supported on all
comparable types.
Examples:
CEL Expression | Purpose |
---|---|
names.isSorted() | Verify that a list of names is kept in alphabetical order |
items.map(x, x.weight).sum() == 1.0 | Verify that the "weights" of a list of objects sum to 1.0 |
lowPriorities.map(x, x.priority).max() < highPriorities.map(x, x.priority).min() | Verify that two sets of priorities do not overlap |
names.indexOf('should-be-first') == 1 | Require that the first name in a list if a specific value |
See the Kubernetes List Library godoc for more information.
Kubernetes regex library
In addition to the matches
function provided by the CEL standard library, the
regex library provides find
and findAll
, enabling a much wider range of
regex operations.
Examples:
CEL Expression | Purpose |
---|---|
"abc 123".find('[0-9]+') | Find the first number in a string |
"1, 2, 3, 4".findAll('[0-9]+').map(x, int(x)).sum() < 100 | Verify that the numbers in a string sum to less than 100 |
See the Kubernetes regex library godoc for more information.
Kubernetes URL library
To make it easier and safer to process URLs, the following functions have been added:
isURL(string)
checks if a string is a valid URL according to the Go's net/url package. The string must be an absolute URL.url(string) URL
converts a string to a URL or results in an error if the string is not a valid URL.
Once parsed via the url
function, the resulting URL object has getScheme
,
getHost
, getHostname
, getPort
, getEscapedPath
and getQuery
accessors.
Examples:
CEL Expression | Purpose |
---|---|
url('https://example.com:80/').getHost() | Gets the 'example.com:80' host part of the URL |
url('https://example.com/path with spaces/').getEscapedPath() | Returns '/path%20with%20spaces/' |
See the Kubernetes URL library godoc for more information.
Kubernetes authorizer library
For CEL expressions in the API where a variable of type Authorizer
is available,
the authorizer may be used to perform authorization checks for the principal
(authenticated user) of the request.
API resource checks are performed as follows:
- Specify the group and resource to check:
Authorizer.group(string).resource(string) ResourceCheck
- Optionally call any combination of the following builder functions to further narrow the authorization check.
Note that these functions return the receiver type and can be chained:
ResourceCheck.subresource(string) ResourceCheck
ResourceCheck.namespace(string) ResourceCheck
ResourceCheck.name(string) ResourceCheck
- Call
ResourceCheck.check(verb string) Decision
to perform the authorization check. - Call
allowed() bool
orreason() string
to inspect the result of the authorization check.
Non-resource authorization performed are used as follows:
- Specify only a path:
Authorizer.path(string) PathCheck
- Call
PathCheck.check(httpVerb string) Decision
to perform the authorization check. - Call
allowed() bool
orreason() string
to inspect the result of the authorization check.
To perform an authorization check for a service account:
Authorizer.serviceAccount(namespace string, name string) Authorizer
CEL Expression | Purpose |
---|---|
authorizer.group('').resource('pods').namespace('default').check('create').allowed() | Returns true if the principal (user or service account) is allowed create pods in the 'default' namespace. |
authorizer.path('/healthz').check('get').allowed() | Checks if the principal (user or service account) is authorized to make HTTP GET requests to the /healthz API path. |
authorizer.serviceAccount('default', 'myserviceaccount').resource('deployments').check('delete').allowed() | Checks if the service account is authorized to delete deployments. |
Kubernetes v1.31 [alpha]
With the alpha AuthorizeWithSelectors
feature enabled, field and label selectors can be added to authorization checks.
CEL Expression | Purpose |
---|---|
authorizer.group('').resource('pods').fieldSelector('spec.nodeName=mynode').check('list').allowed() | Returns true if the principal (user or service account) is allowed to list pods with the field selector spec.nodeName=mynode . |
authorizer.group('').resource('pods').labelSelector('example.com/mylabel=myvalue').check('list').allowed() | Returns true if the principal (user or service account) is allowed to list pods with the label selector example.com/mylabel=myvalue . |
See the Kubernetes Authz library and Kubernetes AuthzSelectors library godoc for more information.
Kubernetes quantity library
Kubernetes 1.28 adds support for manipulating quantity strings (ex 1.5G, 512k, 20Mi)
isQuantity(string)
checks if a string is a valid Quantity according to Kubernetes' resource.Quantity.quantity(string) Quantity
converts a string to a Quantity or results in an error if the string is not a valid quantity.
Once parsed via the quantity
function, the resulting Quantity object has the
following library of member functions:
Member Function | CEL Return Value | Description |
---|---|---|
isInteger() | bool | Returns true if and only if asInteger is safe to call without an error |
asInteger() | int | Returns a representation of the current value as an int64 if possible or results in an error if conversion would result in overflow or loss of precision. |
asApproximateFloat() | float | Returns a float64 representation of the quantity which may lose precision. If the value of the quantity is outside the range of a float64 +Inf/-Inf will be returned. |
sign() | int | Returns 1 if the quantity is positive, -1 if it is negative. 0 if it is zero |
add(<Quantity>) | Quantity | Returns sum of two quantities |
add(<int>) | Quantity | Returns sum of quantity and an integer |
sub(<Quantity>) | Quantity | Returns difference between two quantities |
sub(<int>) | Quantity | Returns difference between a quantity and an integer |
isLessThan(<Quantity>) | bool | Returns true if and only if the receiver is less than the operand |
isGreaterThan(<Quantity>) | bool | Returns true if and only if the receiver is greater than the operand |
compareTo(<Quantity>) | int | Compares receiver to operand and returns 0 if they are equal, 1 if the receiver is greater, or -1 if the receiver is less than the operand |
Examples:
CEL Expression | Purpose |
---|---|
quantity("500000G").isInteger() | Test if conversion to integer would throw an error |
quantity("50k").asInteger() | Precise conversion to integer |
quantity("9999999999999999999999999999999999999G").asApproximateFloat() | Lossy conversion to float |
quantity("50k").add(quantity("20k")) | Add two quantities |
quantity("50k").sub(20000) | Subtract an integer from a quantity |
quantity("50k").add(20).sub(quantity("100k")).sub(-50000) | Chain adding and subtracting integers and quantities |
quantity("200M").compareTo(quantity("0.2G")) | Compare two quantities |
quantity("150Mi").isGreaterThan(quantity("100Mi")) | Test if a quantity is greater than the receiver |
quantity("50M").isLessThan(quantity("100M")) | Test if a quantity is less than the receiver |
Type checking
CEL is a gradually typed language.
Some Kubernetes API fields contain fully type checked CEL expressions. For example, CustomResourceDefinitions Validation Rules are fully type checked.
Some Kubernetes API fields contain partially type checked CEL expressions. A
partially type checked expression is an expressions where some of the variables
are statically typed but others are dynamically typed. For example, in the CEL
expressions of
ValidatingAdmissionPolicies
the request
variable is typed, but the object
variable is dynamically typed.
As a result, an expression containing request.namex
would fail type checking
because the namex
field is not defined. However, object.namex
would pass
type checking even when the namex
field is not defined for the resource kinds
that object
refers to, because object
is dynamically typed.
The has()
macro in CEL may be used in CEL expressions to check if a field of a
dynamically typed variable is accessible before attempting to access the field's
value. For example:
has(object.namex) ? object.namex == 'special' : request.name == 'special'
Type system integration
OpenAPIv3 type | CEL type |
---|---|
'object' with Properties | object / "message type" (type(<object>) evaluates to selfType<uniqueNumber>.path.to.object.from.self ) |
'object' with AdditionalProperties | map |
'object' with x-kubernetes-embedded-type | object / "message type", 'apiVersion', 'kind', 'metadata.name' and 'metadata.generateName' are implicitly included in schema |
'object' with x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields | object / "message type", unknown fields are NOT accessible in CEL expression |
x-kubernetes-int-or-string | union of int or string, self.intOrString < 100 || self.intOrString == '50%' evaluates to true for both 50 and "50%" |
'array' | list |
'array' with x-kubernetes-list-type=map | list with map based Equality & unique key guarantees |
'array' with x-kubernetes-list-type=set | list with set based Equality & unique entry guarantees |
'boolean' | boolean |
'number' (all formats) | double |
'integer' (all formats) | int (64) |
no equivalent | uint (64) |
'null' | null_type |
'string' | string |
'string' with format=byte (base64 encoded) | bytes |
'string' with format=date | timestamp (google.protobuf.Timestamp) |
'string' with format=datetime | timestamp (google.protobuf.Timestamp) |
'string' with format=duration | duration (google.protobuf.Duration) |
Also see: CEL types, OpenAPI types, Kubernetes Structural Schemas.
Equality comparison for arrays with x-kubernetes-list-type
of set
or map
ignores element
order. For example [1, 2] == [2, 1]
if the arrays represent Kubernetes set
values.
Concatenation on arrays with x-kubernetes-list-type
use the semantics of the
list type:
set
X + Y
performs a union where the array positions of all elements inX
are preserved and non-intersecting elements inY
are appended, retaining their partial order.map
X + Y
performs a merge where the array positions of all keys inX
are preserved but the values are overwritten by values inY
when the key sets ofX
andY
intersect. Elements inY
with non-intersecting keys are appended, retaining their partial order.
Escaping
Only Kubernetes resource property names of the form
[a-zA-Z_.-/][a-zA-Z0-9_.-/]*
are accessible from CEL. Accessible property
names are escaped according to the following rules when accessed in the
expression:
escape sequence | property name equivalent |
---|---|
__underscores__ | __ |
__dot__ | . |
__dash__ | - |
__slash__ | / |
__{keyword}__ | CEL RESERVED keyword |
When you escape any of CEL's RESERVED keywords you need to match the exact property name
use the underscore escaping
(for example, int
in the word sprint
would not be escaped and nor would it need to be).
Examples on escaping:
property name | rule with escaped property name |
---|---|
namespace | self.__namespace__ > 0 |
x-prop | self.x__dash__prop > 0 |
redact__d | self.redact__underscores__d > 0 |
string | self.startsWith('kube') |
Resource constraints
CEL is non-Turing complete and offers a variety of production safety controls to limit execution time. CEL's resource constraint features provide feedback to developers about expression complexity and help protect the API server from excessive resource consumption during evaluation. CEL's resource constraint features are used to prevent CEL evaluation from consuming excessive API server resources.
A key element of the resource constraint features is a cost unit that CEL defines as a way of tracking CPU utilization. Cost units are independent of system load and hardware. Cost units are also deterministic; for any given CEL expression and input data, evaluation of the expression by the CEL interpreter will always result in the same cost.
Many of CEL's core operations have fixed costs. The simplest operations, such as
comparisons (e.g. <
) have a cost of 1. Some have a higher fixed cost, for
example list literal declarations have a fixed base cost of 40 cost units.
Calls to functions implemented in native code approximate cost based on the time
complexity of the operation. For example: operations that use regular
expressions, such as match
and find
, are estimated using an approximated
cost of length(regexString)*length(inputString)
. The approximated cost
reflects the worst case time complexity of Go's RE2 implementation.
Runtime cost budget
All CEL expressions evaluated by Kubernetes are constrained by a runtime cost budget. The runtime cost budget is an estimate of actual CPU utilization computed by incrementing a cost unit counter while interpreting a CEL expression. If the CEL interpreter executes too many instructions, the runtime cost budget will be exceeded, execution of the expressions will be halted, and an error will result.
Some Kubernetes resources define an additional runtime cost budget that bounds the execution of multiple expressions. If the sum total of the cost of expressions exceed the budget, execution of the expressions will be halted, and an error will result. For example the validation of a custom resource has a per-validation runtime cost budget for all Validation Rules evaluated to validate the custom resource.
Estimated cost limits
For some Kubernetes resources, the API server may also check if worst case estimated running time of CEL expressions would be prohibitively expensive to execute. If so, the API server prevent the CEL expression from being written to API resources by rejecting create or update operations containing the CEL expression to the API resources. This feature offers a stronger assurance that CEL expressions written to the API resource will be evaluated at runtime without exceeding the runtime cost budget.