Cross-File References

Resources often depend on each other — a policy needs a storage resource’s ARN, a function needs a table’s name. chant uses standard TypeScript imports for cross-file references.

Direct Imports

Import a resource from another file and access its attributes:

src/cross-ref-storage.ts

import { Bucket, Sub, AWS, Ref } from "@intentius/chant-lexicon-aws";
import { environment } from "./parameters";

export const dataBucket = new Bucket({
  BucketName: Sub`${AWS.StackName}-${Ref(environment)}-data`,
  PublicAccessBlockConfiguration: {
    BlockPublicAcls: true,
    BlockPublicPolicy: true,
    IgnorePublicAcls: true,
    RestrictPublicBuckets: true,
  },
});

src/cross-ref-policy.ts

import { Role, ManagedPolicy } from "@intentius/chant-lexicon-aws";
import { dataBucket } from "./cross-ref-storage";

export const accessRole = new Role({
  AssumeRolePolicyDocument: {
    Version: "2012-10-17",
    Statement: [{
      Effect: "Allow",
      Principal: { Service: "lambda.amazonaws.com" },
      Action: "sts:AssumeRole",
    }],
  },
});

export const readPolicy = new ManagedPolicy({
  PolicyDocument: {
    Statement: [{
      Effect: "Allow",
      Action: ["s3:GetObject"],
      Resource: dataBucket.Arn,
    }],
  },
  Roles: [accessRole],
});

dataBucket.arn resolves to a symbolic cross-resource reference in the evaluated output. The evaluator traces the import back to the source file, identifies the resource type, and resolves the attribute through the lexicon’s attribute registry.

Build-Time Resolution

Cross-file references are resolved at build time, not at runtime. This means:

• References are resolved statically — the evaluator follows imports to build the resource graph
• References to nonexistent resources produce a build error
• Circular dependencies between resources are detected and reported

Importing Patterns

Pattern	Example
Import a resource	import { dataBucket } from "./data-bucket"
Import shared config	import { encryptionDefault } from "./defaults"
Import from lexicon	import { Bucket, Sub, AWS } from "@intentius/chant-lexicon-aws"
Import from core	import { Composite, output } from "@intentius/chant"

All imports use standard TypeScript import statements. The evaluator follows imports through the module graph and resolves each referenced binding to its definition.