shell

Runs an arbitrary shell command in the target repository directory.

Usage

- name: validate
  shell:
    command: "kubeval --strict argocd/{{ .serviceName }}.yaml"
    timeout: "30s"
    pure: true

Field	Description
command	Shell command to execute (sh -c), templated
timeout	Maximum duration (e.g. 30s, 5m). Operation fails if exceeded.
pure	If true, this command has no external side effects and runs even in --local-run mode. Default: false.

Behavior

The command is rendered as a Go template, so you can inject parameters. The working directory is the target repository. If the command exits non-zero, Loom stops with an error.

Pure Commands

In --local-run mode, shell commands are skipped by default because they may create remote resources (deploy, notify, call external APIs, etc.).

Mark a command with pure: true to indicate it has no external side effects -- it only reads or modifies local files. Examples: linting, formatting, validation.

- name: format
  shell:
    command: "gofmt -w ."
    pure: true      # no side effects, safe in --local-run mode

- name: deploy
  shell:
    command: "kubectl apply -f manifests/"
    # not marked pure -- skipped in --local-run mode

Timeout

If timeout is set and the command exceeds it, the process is killed and the operation fails.

- name: slow-check
  shell:
    command: "heavy-validation-script.sh"
    timeout: "5m"

Dry Run

In dry-run mode, the command is logged but not executed.