---
layout: docs
page_title: Worker - Configuration
description: |-
  The worker stanza configures worker-specific parameters.
---

# `worker` Stanza

The `worker` stanza configures Boundary worker-specific parameters.

```hcl
worker {
  name = "example-worker"
  description = "An example worker"
  public_addr = "5.1.23.198"
}
```

- `name` - Specifies a unique name of this worker within the Boundary
  cluster. This value can be a direct name string, can refer to a file on disk
  (file://) from which an name will be read; or an env var (env://) from which
  the name will be read.

- `description` - Specifies a friendly description of this worker.

- `public_addr` - Specifies the public host or IP address (and optionally port)
  at which the worker can be reached _by clients for proxying_. This defaults to
  the address of the listener marked for `proxy` purpose. This is especially
  useful for cloud environments that do not bind a publicly accessible IP to a NIC
  on the host directly, such as an Amazon EIP.

- `controllers` - A list of hosts/IP addresses and optionally ports for reaching
  controllers. The port will default to :9201 if not specified.

- `tags` - A map of key-value pairs where values are an array of strings. Most
  commonly used for [filtering](/docs/concepts/filtering) targets a worker can
  proxy via [worker tags](/docs/concepts/filtering/worker-tags). On `SIGHUP`, the
  tags set here will be re-parsed and new values used..

## KMS Configuration

Workers require a KMS block designated for `worker-auth`. This is the KMS configuration for
authentication between the workers and controllers and must be present. Example (not safe for production!):

```hcl
  kms "aead" {
	purpose = "worker-auth"
	aead_type = "aes-gcm"
	key = "8fZBjCUfN0TzjEGLQldGY4+iE9AkOvCfjh7+p0GtRBQ="
	key_id = "global_worker-auth"
}
```

This configuration must be the same for the worker-auth configuration for the controller if you're
running the controller and worker as separate servers.

And optionally, a KMS stanza for configuration encryption purpose:

```hcl
# Configuration encryption block: decrypts sensitive values in the
# configuration file. See `boundary config [encrypt|decrypt] -h`.
kms "aead" {
  purpose   = "config"`
  aead_type = "aes-gcm"
  key       = "7xtkEoS5EXPbgynwd+dDLHopaCqK8cq0Rpep4eooaTs="
}
```

Boundary supports many kinds of KMS integrations. For a complete guide to all available
KMS types, see our [KMS documentation](/docs/configuration/kms).

# Complete Configuration Example

```hcl
listener "tcp" {
	purpose = "proxy"
	tls_disable = true
	address = "127.0.0.1"
}

worker {
  # Name attr must be unique across workers
  name = "demo-worker-1"
  description = "A default worker created demonstration"

  # Workers must be able to reach controllers on :9201
  controllers = [
    "10.0.0.1",
    "10.0.0.2",
    "10.0.0.3",
  ]

  public_addr = "myhost.mycompany.com"

  tags {
    type   = ["prod", "webservers"]
    region = ["us-east-1"]
  }
}

# must be same key as used on controller config
kms "aead" {
	purpose = "worker-auth"
	aead_type = "aes-gcm"
	key = "8fZBjCUfN0TzjEGLQldGY4+iE9AkOvCfjh7+p0GtRBQ="
	key_id = "global_worker-auth"
}
```