How do I reference and set a “per run” variable in my Azure Pipelines YAML?

Question

I'm authoring an Azure Pipelines YAML file. I'd like a value to be sent in from the "outside" when the pipeline runs. How can I do this?

I've read this documentation but it's too dense, or I'm too dense, and I'm finding it hard to discern my simple use-case.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/process/variables?view=azure-devops&tabs=yaml%2Cbatch

Luke Puplett Luke Puplett · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-04T17:48:54

In your YAML, use the syntax $(myVariableName). You can concatenate this into string values.

Here's an example:

- task: AzurePowerShell@4
  displayName: Deploy ARM template
  inputs:
    inline: 'New-AzResourceGroupDeployment -ResourceGroupName $(azureResourceGroup) -TemplateFile $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/build/$(armTemplateJsonFileName)'
  ...

The variables azureResourceGroup and armTemplateJsonFileName can then be configured within the web UI of the Pipeline as per the screenshot below. It will turned into an environment variable when the pipeline runs, so its also accessible to any scripts you run.

How do I reference and set a “per run” variable in my Azure Pipelines YAML?

1 Answers