yq is not properly interpreting map from list of maps if it comes from env variable

I am trying to append new entries to the following yaml:

  destinations:
    - namespace: ns1
      server: https://kubernetes.default.svc

What I expect is:

  destinations:
    - namespace: ns1
      server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    - namespace: ns2
      server: https://kubernetes.default.svc- 
    - namespace: ns3
      server: https://kubernetes.default.svc

and I can get is, if I do like this

yq -i '.spec.destinations += [{"namespace": "zi-test-customer", "server": "https://kubernetes.default.svc"},{"namespace": "zi-test-customer2", "server": "https://kubernetes.default.svc"}]' file.yaml

But if I take the list from env varible I get wrong list

What I am getting is:

  destinations:
    - namespace: ns1
      server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    - {"namespace": "ns2", "server": "https://kubernetes.default.svc"}
    - {"namespace": "ns3", "server": "https://kubernetes.default.svc"}

If I do this

NS=[{"namespace": "ns2", "server": "https://kubernetes.default.svc"},{"namespace": "ns3", "server": "https://kubernetes.default.svc"}]
yq -i '.spec.destinations += env(NS)' file.yaml

How extract values from env varible properly?

What you see as "wrong result" is nothing but a different representation. You're importing a list in JSON format, and its "style" is retained. But the actual data stored is the same in both your expected and your "wrong" result.

If you want to remove the style, mikefarah/yq provides the style operator. Remove it by setting it to an empty string:

NS='[{"namespace": "ns2", "server": "https://kubernetes.default.svc"},{"namespace": "ns3", "server": "https://kubernetes.default.svc"}]'
NS="$NS" yq '.spec.destinations += env(NS) | ... style=""' file.yaml

spec:
  destinations:
    - namespace: ns1
      server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    - namespace: ns2
      server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    - namespace: ns3
      server: https://kubernetes.default.svc