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The container

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Environment variables

Every active variable is exported by name. See the exposure rules for how empty, optional, boolean, and inactive variables resolve. In addition: User variables may not start with KEEL_.

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Step execution

Keel assembles one script from the steps and runs it in the container:
  • Order. Steps run in declaration order.
  • Isolation. Each step’s run executes in its own subshell. Working directory changes, set options, functions, and unexported shell variables do not leak into the next step.
  • Exports carry forward. After each step — including a failing one — the step’s exported environment is snapshotted and restored at the start of the next, so export FOO=… in step 2 is visible in step 3 and to output capture.
  • Failure. The script runs under set -e, and each step’s subshell inherits it: the first command in a run block that exits non-zero ends the step, the step is marked failed, and every later step is skipped. Keel does not retry and does not roll back.
  • Status. Each step reports pending, running, succeeded, failed, or skipped, driven by marker lines the engine emits and consumes; they never appear in the visible log.
The usual set -e exemptions apply inside a block: a command in an if condition, on the left of && or ||, or anywhere in a pipeline except its last command does not end the step when it fails. Append || true to a command that is allowed to fail, and check the exit of pipelines explicitly (set -o pipefail works in Alpine’s ash and in bash, not in dash).

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Logs

Standard output and standard error of the build and of the steps stream line by line to the run page and, for keel deploy, to the terminal. Before a line is stored or shown, every secret value is replaced with •••. A single line longer than 1 MB cannot be processed. Keel logs [keel] log line dropped and discards the rest of that stream (standard output or standard error) for the remainder of the run; the run itself continues and its exit status is unaffected. Avoid dumping large blobs on one line — pipe them through fold or write them to a file.

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Outputs

At the end of a run in which every step succeeded, each declared output is read from the final environment and captured — up to 64 KiB per value, on a channel separate from the log. See the outputs reference.

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Cancellation

Cancel (UI) or Ctrl+C (keel deploy) force-removes the container. The run is marked canceled, the running step failed, later steps skipped. Whatever the steps already did in external systems remains.