Auto trigger execution only for specific containers

[Waler]

Use Case:

I would like to define a trigger which should only be executed automatically for specific containers.

As far as I know, the only way to do this currently is: Define a trigger with auto=true and exclude it in all container via label except on the containers which should use the trigger. This is very impractical, therefor I have following proposal for the feature:

Proposal:

The trigger configuration DD_TRIGGER_{trigger_type}_{trigger_name}_AUTO has 3 supported Values: "All, OnInclude, None" For backwards compatibility the old values still can be used and are mapped to the new values: "true" == "All" and "false" == "None"

I'm interested in your opinion about the feature and the proposal before I start implementing it :)

[s-b-e-n-s-o-n]

Thanks for the well-structured proposal -- this is a real workflow gap.

How it works today

When AUTO=true (the default), a trigger registers for container update events and fires for every container unless that container explicitly opts out via dd.trigger.exclude. The dd.trigger.include label flips the logic for a specific container -- but the trigger itself still runs by default for all others.

So if you want a trigger to only fire for 3 out of 50 containers, you'd need to add dd.trigger.exclude=dockercompose.mystack labels to 47 containers. That's the pain you're describing.

Your proposal

Expanding AUTO to a three-value enum:

Value	Behavior
All (default, true compat)	Fire for all containers unless excluded
OnInclude	Only fire for containers with dd.trigger.include listing this trigger
None (false compat)	Manual execution only

This is clean and backward-compatible. The implementation touches one method -- isTriggerIncluded() in app/triggers/providers/Trigger.ts:

// Current:
isTriggerIncluded(containerResult, triggerInclude) {
  if (!triggerInclude) return true;  // No label = allow
  return this.isTriggerIncludedOrExcluded(containerResult, triggerInclude);
}

// With OnInclude:
isTriggerIncluded(containerResult, triggerInclude) {
  if (!triggerInclude) {
    return this.configuration.auto !== 'oninclude';  // <-- only change
  }
  return this.isTriggerIncludedOrExcluded(containerResult, triggerInclude);
}

Plus updating the Joi schema for auto from joi.bool() to accept true | false | 'all' | 'oninclude' | 'none' with normalization.

Thoughts

1. The approach is right. This is the minimal change that solves the problem without adding new label types or configuration complexity.
2. Naming: OnInclude reads well. I'd normalize to lowercase internally (oninclude) to match how other string configs are handled.
3. Docs: The trigger configuration docs would need the new values documented.

If you'd like to open a PR for this, go for it -- happy to review. The key files are:

• app/triggers/providers/Trigger.ts -- schema validation + isTriggerIncluded() logic
• app/triggers/providers/Trigger.test.ts -- test coverage for the new mode

Let me know if you have questions about the codebase or want to discuss the approach further.

[Waler]

Thank you for your answer. I don't have any further questions and will start working on the PR.

[Waler]

I see it's already implemented in 1.5
I'm too slow for you @s-b-e-n-s-o-n 😄

[s-b-e-n-s-o-n]

Please submit your code if you have done work on it, your implementation may be better!

[s-b-e-n-s-o-n]

This is now available to try in v1.5.0-rc.1.

docker pull ghcr.io/codeswhat/drydock:1.5.0-rc.1