Store vars in a separate file

[MelaAxel]

I have need to point different runs to different TestRail projects, so I need to specify that config at execution. That works fine by using the proper flags for the Cy run. However, for security, I don't want my TestRail creds stored in those env.json files; additionally, to limit the duplication of files in my setup, I want to use a 'testrail.json' file to store all the config settings that I will reference for that run.

Dumbing this down to a single file / config, I've moved the 'testrail' section of the env.json into a testrail.json file and tried using a $ref:

but I get this error:

What am I missing to get this working correctly while storing these variables in a referenced file?

[boxblinkracer]

Hi there

aehm...not quite sure if $ref works out of the box, because I would probably need to support that :)
so you cant just invent a new parameter in that part of the config-file with my code

but let me first ask.. you know that alle these things can be added as ENV variable directly when executing it?

so what you are trying to say is that you DO want a file-based storage, but it should just not be the cypress.env.json?

I could add a fallback lookup for testrail.json in that case and it will work

what do you think?
can you clear up things for me and verify my assumption? thank you :)

[MelaAxel]

@boxblinkracer Thanks, I guess I thought it should work based on it being a standard in the schema (https://json-schema.org/understanding-json-schema/structuring#dollarref)...

Anywho... so yes, I do want to have file-based storage for these as I don't want to muddy the waters of my pipelines AND that I need to have various sets based on the pipeline.

Adding a fallback should work but what does the implementation path look like to support $ref instead?

[MelaAxel]

After thinking on this for a few more days, maybe it's easier to just look at the fallback option for the creds and I can specify the rest in the vars in specific env files I'll call in the cli...