Read configuration from a file Core

FileBind reads configuration values from a JSON, JSONC, or YAML file. The file is read once at construction. Element paths are resolved against the parsed file using nested keys first, falling back to flat dot-path keys.

Steps

1. Install the package if you haven't already:

npm install @config-bound/config-bound

2. Pass a FileBind to ConfigBound.createConfig:

import { ConfigBound, configItem, configSection } from "@config-bound/config-bound";
import { FileBind } from "@config-bound/config-bound";
import { z } from "zod";

const config = await ConfigBound.createConfig(
  {
    port: configItem<number>({
      default: 3000,
      validator: z.number().int().min(1).max(65535)
    }),
    database: configSection({
      host: configItem<string>({
        default: "localhost",
        validator: z.hostname()
      })
    })
  },
  {
    binds: [new FileBind({ filePath: "./config.yaml" })]
  }
);

3. Write the config file:

# config.yaml
port: 8080
database:
  host: db.production.local

FileBind resolves filePath to an absolute path via path.resolve(), so relative paths are resolved from the current working directory at the time the bind is constructed.

Format detection

The format is inferred from the file extension. If your file uses a non-standard extension, pass format explicitly:

new FileBind({ filePath: "./settings.conf", format: "json" })

Extension	Inferred format
.json	json
.jsonc	jsonc
.yml / .yaml	yaml

Scope to a subtree with rootKey

If your config file contains multiple applications or a wrapper structure, use rootKey to scope the bind to a subtree:

# config.yaml
wrapper:
  app:
    port: 3000
  database:
    host: db.local

new FileBind({ filePath: "./config.yaml", rootKey: "wrapper" })
// "app.port"       -> 3000
// "database.host"  -> "db.local"

Reload the file at runtime

The file is read once at construction. Call reload() to re-read it to pick up the latest file changes while the process is running:

const bind = new FileBind({ filePath: "./config.yaml" });
// ...later, after the file changes:
bind.reload();

Null handling

Explicit null values in the file are treated as unset. The next bind in the priority order, or the element's default, takes over.

Related

• FileBind API reference
• Use EnvVarBind - read config from environment variables
• Use StaticBind - supply config values directly in code