System Actions

General

message

Emits a system message as the action result.

Returns: The text string.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
text	string	✓	—	Message text to emit.

# Log the current pipeline status for debugging
- group: system
  name: message
  params:
    text: 'Pipeline status: {{ status }}'

Process

runApplication

Spawns a system command or application and returns its stdout output.

Pass args to run the command with explicit arguments (shell disabled by default). Omit args and the command string is tokenized into a program + arguments and run WITHOUT a shell by default — no ;, &&, |, backticks, or $() are interpreted, which matters when any part of command comes from a template-substituted variable. Set options.shell: true only when you deliberately need real shell features (pipes, redirects, chaining) and trust everything that can end up in command.

Returns: The trimmed stdout of the command.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
command	string	✓	—	The executable or command to run.
args	string[]		—	List of command-line arguments to pass.
env	Record<string, any> | ``		—	Environment variables to set for the process.
options	object		—	Execution options (e.g. shell: true to run in a shell).

# Open VLC and capture any output
- group: system
  name: runApplication
  params:
    command: open -a VLC

terminateProcess

Sends a signal to a running process to terminate it.

Returns: true on success.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
pid	number | string	✓	—	Process ID (PID) of the process to terminate.
signal	SIGTERM | SIGKILL | SIGINT		—	Signal to send: SIGTERM (graceful), SIGKILL (force), or SIGINT (interrupt).

# Terminate a process captured from a previous runApplication
- group: system
  name: terminateProcess
  params:
    pid: '{{ pid }}'
    signal: SIGTERM

setEnvVariable

Sets an environment variable in the current process.

Returns: true on success.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
key	string	✓	—	Environment variable name.
value	string	✓	—	Value to assign to the environment variable.

# Inject a runtime API token into the process environment
- group: system
  name: setEnvVariable
  params:
    key: TIPELINE_API_TOKEN
    value: '{{ apiToken }}'

Environment Variables

getEnvVariable

Reads an environment variable from the current process.

Returns: The variable's value, or null if it does not exist.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
key	string	✓	—	Name of the environment variable to read.

# Read the HOME directory path and store it for later use
- group: system
  name: getEnvVariable
  params:
    key: HOME
  destination: homeDir

deleteEnvVariable

Removes an environment variable from the current process.

Returns: true on success.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
key	string	✓	—	Name of the environment variable to delete.

# Remove a temporary token after use to avoid leaking credentials
- group: system
  name: deleteEnvVariable
  params:
    key: TIPELINE_API_TOKEN