vrl-authoring

name	vrl-authoring
description	Use when creating, editing, debugging, or reviewing Vector Remap Language files or their fixtures; changing log parsing under `kubernetes/apps/observability/victoria-logs-single/vrl/`; or running `scripts/test-vrl.py`. Do NOT use for Vector deployment changes unrelated to VRL parsing.

VRL authoring

Keep VRL programs in separate .vrl files. Do not inline them in vector.yaml or Helm values.

Contract

• Preserve standard Vector fields such as message, timestamp, level, severity, host, and source_type; do not create custom equivalents.
• Prefer non-greedy .*? when a greedy expression could consume a later delimiter.
• Handle malformed, partial, and already-structured input without losing the original message.
• Keep parser-specific fields narrow; avoid duplicating generic fields under another name.

Fixtures

Every parser has a matching fixture:

vrl/parse-name.vrl
vrl/tests/parse-name.json

The fixture is a JSON array. Each case contains name, input, and expect; expect is a subset of the emitted event. Add cases for successful parsing and the relevant malformed or unmatched boundary.

Verification

Run the focused parser first, then the full suite:

./scripts/test-vrl.py name
./scripts/test-vrl.py

Treat Vector compilation errors, output-count mismatches, and fixture mismatches as failures. Do not weaken an expected result merely to make a changed parser pass.