Bundles

A UDS Bundle combines Zarf packages with environment-specific configuration into a single declarative artifact, defined in a uds-bundle.yaml manifest and managed through the UDS CLI. It is the deployable unit — a versioned artifact that pairs what to deploy with how to configure it for a given environment.

Why bundles are a platform concern

Without bundles, teams would need to deploy Zarf packages individually, track compatible versions manually, and repeat environment-specific configuration for each cluster. Bundles solve this by treating the entire stack — platform and applications — as a single versioned artifact.

Consistency

Pins exact package versions so every environment gets the same stack.

Composability

Add or remove packages without forking the platform.

Air-gap readiness

Inherits Zarf’s ability to package everything for disconnected environments.

Environment tailoring

Overrides and variables adapt a single bundle to dev, staging, and production.

What a bundle contains

A bundle manifest lists Zarf packages to deploy, in order. A bundle for the core platform layers might look like this:

kind: UDSBundle
metadata:
  name: core-platform
  description: Cluster init and UDS Core platform
  version: "x.x.x"

packages:
  - name: init
    repository: ghcr.io/zarf-dev/packages/init
    ref: x.x.x

  - name: core
    repository: ghcr.io/defenseunicorns/packages/uds/core
    ref: x.x.x

Each entry references a Zarf package by OCI repository and version tag. Deploy order matters — packages are deployed top to bottom, so the platform is ready before applications land.

Overrides and variables

Bundles support two layers of configuration so that a single artifact can adapt to different environments:

Mechanism	Defined in	Set by	Purpose
Overrides	`uds-bundle.yaml`	Bundle author	Defaults and Helm value mappings the author pre-configures
Variables	`uds-config.yaml`	Deployer	Secrets, endpoints, and values that differ per cluster

The bundle author defines which Helm values and Zarf variables are configurable and where they map. The deployer provides the values via uds-config.yaml at deploy time. This separation means you build once and configure per cluster — the bundle defines the knobs, uds-config.yaml turns them.

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