Extensible Attributes¶

NIOS Extensible Attributes (EAs) are user-defined key-value metadata that can be attached to almost any WAPI object. ibcli uses the set key=value pattern to pass EA values when creating or modifying objects.

Syntax¶

Append set <key> <value> to any configure ... add or configure ... modify command that supports extensible attributes:

configure zone add corp.example set Owner alice set Env production
configure network add 10.1.0.0/24 set Site NYC set Owner bob

The tokenizer splits set key=value into set key value, so both forms are equivalent:

configure zone add corp.example set Owner alice
configure zone add corp.example set Owner=alice

How it maps to WAPI¶

Each set key value pair is translated into a WAPI extattrs dict:

{
  "fqdn": "corp.example",
  "extattrs": {
    "Owner": {"value": "alice"},
    "Env":   {"value": "production"}
  }
}

The EA key must already be defined on the grid (see configure grid attribute) before it can be attached to an object.

Set-chain depth limit¶

Set-chain depth cap

The parser registers a static set-chain up to 16 pairs deep per command. A command with more than 16 set key value pairs will hit an "Unknown argument" error - bump the range(16) / range(1, 17) constants in src/ibcli/commands/*.py if you need more (each additional depth adds ~3 entries per endpoint to the flat COMMANDS dict).

Affected commands: configure zone add, configure zone modify, configure network add, configure network modify, configure network container add/modify, configure template network add, configure zone <zone> add host.

Viewing EA values¶

Extensible attribute values are not returned by default show commands - WAPI requires explicit _return_fields+ to include extattrs. The current show handlers do not request EA values in their output. Use the WAPI GUI or a direct WAPI query to inspect EAs on existing objects.

Defining EA types¶

See Extensible Attributes commands for how to add, list, and delete EA definitions on the grid.