Hash & Encoding Functions

WCL provides functions for hashing strings and encoding/decoding data. These are pure, deterministic functions useful for generating stable identifiers, verifying content, and interoperating with systems that expect encoded data.

Reference

Function	Signature	Description
`sha256`	`sha256(s: string) -> string`	Hex-encoded SHA-256 digest of the UTF-8 bytes of `s`
`base64_encode`	`base64_encode(s: string) -> string`	Standard Base64 encoding of the UTF-8 bytes of `s`
`base64_decode`	`base64_decode(s: string) -> string`	Decode a Base64-encoded string back to UTF-8
`json_encode`	`json_encode(value: any) -> string`	Serialize any WCL value to a JSON string

Examples

sha256

let digest = sha256("hello world")
// "b94d27b9934d3e08a52e52d7da7dabfac484efe04294e576b35568b3f5d8d4a5"
// (truncated for illustration)

Use sha256 to generate stable, content-derived identifiers:

let artifact_id = sha256(format("{}-{}-{}", name, version, arch))

artifact ${artifact_id} {
  name: name
  version: version
}

base64_encode / base64_decode

let encoded = base64_encode("user:password")   // "dXNlcjpwYXNzd29yZA=="
let decoded = base64_decode(encoded)           // "user:password"

Encode a config value for embedding in an environment variable:

config app {
  db_url_b64: base64_encode("postgres://host:5432/mydb")
}

json_encode

json_encode converts any WCL value to its JSON representation:

let obj = {name: "web", port: 8080, tags: ["api", "public"]}
let json = json_encode(obj)
// "{\"name\":\"web\",\"port\":8080,\"tags\":[\"api\",\"public\"]}"

Scalar values:

let s = json_encode("hello")    // "\"hello\""
let n = json_encode(42)         // "42"
let b = json_encode(true)       // "true"
let l = json_encode([1, 2, 3])  // "[1,2,3]"

json_encode is particularly useful when you need to embed structured data as a string in another system’s configuration format:

service api {
  env_vars: {
    APP_CONFIG: json_encode({
      timeout: 30
      retries: 3
      endpoints: ["primary", "fallback"]
    })
  }
}

Notes

sha256 always produces lowercase hex output.
base64_encode uses standard Base64 with padding (=). It does not produce URL-safe Base64.
base64_decode returns a string. If the decoded bytes are not valid UTF-8, an error is raised.
json_encode serializes WCL maps with keys in insertion order.

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