parameters.md

Runtime Parameters

Part of the ado-aw documentation.

Runtime Parameters

The parameters field defines Azure DevOps runtime parameters that are surfaced in the ADO UI when manually queuing a pipeline run. Parameters are emitted as a top-level parameters: block in the generated pipeline YAML.

parameters:
  - name: verbose
    displayName: "Verbose output"
    type: boolean
    default: false
  - name: region
    displayName: "Target region"
    type: string
    default: "us-east"
    values:
      - us-east
      - eu-west
      - ap-south

Fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
name	string	Yes	Parameter identifier (valid ADO identifier)
displayName	string	No	Human-readable label in the ADO UI
type	string	No	ADO parameter type: boolean, string, number, object
default	any	No	Default value when not specified at queue time
values	list	No	Allowed values (for string/number parameters)

Parameters can be referenced in custom steps using ${{ parameters.paramName }}.

Auto-injected clearMemory Parameter

When tools.cache-memory is configured, the compiler automatically injects a clearMemory boolean parameter (default: false) at the beginning of the parameters list. This parameter:

• Is surfaced in the ADO UI when manually queuing a run
• When set to true, skips downloading the previous agent memory artifact
• Creates an empty memory directory so the agent starts fresh

If you define your own clearMemory parameter in the front matter, the auto-injected one is suppressed — your definition takes precedence.

Reserved names on target: job / target: stage

On these two targets the compiler auto-injects its own dependsOn and condition template parameters (see docs/targets.md) so callers can wire in external ordering at the template: invocation site. Declaring a front-matter parameters: entry named dependsOn or condition on target: job or target: stage is therefore a compile-time error — rename the parameter or switch targets.