Linked Templates

Linked template deployments allow you to decompose complex infrastructure into smaller, reusable projects.

ChildProjectInstance

Use ChildProjectInstance from the core package to deploy a child project as a linked ARM template deployment:

import { ChildProjectInstance } from "@intentius/chant";

export const networkDeploy = new ChildProjectInstance({
  project: "../network",
  parameters: {
    vnetName: "my-vnet",
    addressPrefix: "10.0.0.0/16",
  },
});

This generates a Microsoft.Resources/deployments resource in the parent template that references the child template.

Multi-project architecture

A typical multi-project setup:

infrastructure/
├── network/           # VNet, subnets, NSGs
│   └── src/main.ts
├── data/              # Storage, SQL, Key Vault
│   └── src/main.ts
├── compute/           # VMs, AKS, App Service
│   └── src/main.ts
└── main/              # Orchestrator — deploys all sub-projects
    └── src/main.ts

The orchestrator project:

main/src/main.ts

import { ChildProjectInstance } from "@intentius/chant";

export const networkDeploy = new ChildProjectInstance({
  project: "../network",
  parameters: {
    vnetName: "prod-vnet",
    addressPrefix: "10.0.0.0/16",
  },
});

export const dataDeploy = new ChildProjectInstance({
  project: "../data",
  parameters: {
    storageName: "prodstorage01",
    sqlServerName: "prod-sql",
  },
});

export const computeDeploy = new ChildProjectInstance({
  project: "../compute",
  parameters: {
    aksClusterName: "prod-aks",
  },
});

Cross-project references

Reference outputs from a child deployment in the parent:

import { ChildProjectInstance, StackOutput } from "@intentius/chant";
import { Reference } from "@intentius/chant-lexicon-azure";

export const networkDeploy = new ChildProjectInstance({
  project: "../network",
  parameters: { vnetName: "my-vnet" },
});

// Reference the child deployment's outputs
export const vnetId = new StackOutput({
  name: "vnetId",
  value: Reference("networkDeploy").outputs.vnetId.value,
});

Deployment modes

ARM linked deployments support two modes:

• Incremental (default) — Adds or updates resources, leaves others unchanged
• Complete — Adds or updates resources and removes any not in the template

The deployment mode is configured at the Azure CLI level:

# Incremental (default, safe)
az deployment group create --mode Incremental --template-file dist/template.json

# Complete (careful — removes unlisted resources)
az deployment group create --mode Complete --template-file dist/template.json