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Cross-File References

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Read https://intentius.io/chant/guide/cross-file-references/.
Find properties in this project that hard-code another resource's name, ARN or ID as a string, and replace each with an import of that resource and its attribute.
Run `npx chant build` and `npx chant lint` until both pass, fix any circular import they report, and open a pull request.
Never deploy to a real cloud account or shared environment (with `chant run`, `chant components` or a platform's own CLI), approve (a pull request review, `chant approve` or `chant run approve`), override a policy denial (`chant approve policy-override`), or merge; never cut or publish a release (`chant release cut --yes` or `chant release publish`), push or delete a `ci/*` tag (`chant ci tick` pushes them), or change the value of an existing flag; never touch `.chant/allowed_signers` or `chant/lifecycle`.

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

Section titled “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

Section titled “Build-Time Resolution”

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

  • 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

Section titled “Importing Patterns”
PatternExample
Import a resourceimport { dataBucket } from "./data-bucket"
Import shared configimport { encryptionDefault } from "./defaults"
Import from lexiconimport { Bucket, Sub, AWS } from "@intentius/chant-lexicon-aws"
Import from coreimport { 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.

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