# Feeding meta-data to a docker plugin command
**URL:** https://forum.buildkite.community/t/feeding-meta-data-to-a-docker-plugin-command/2575
**Category:** General
**Created:** [February 24, 2023, 8:43pm UTC](https://forum.buildkite.community/t/feeding-meta-data-to-a-docker-plugin-command/2575 "2023-02-24T20:43:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@masper](https://forum.buildkite.community/u/masper)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2023, 8:43pm UTC](https://forum.buildkite.community/t/feeding-meta-data-to-a-docker-plugin-command/2575/1 "2023-02-24T20:43:08Z")
Hello, I’m trying to get metadata “foobar” to feed into docker command, but the command is either escaped or any environment variables I set are ignored. Example (which is obviously truncated) below:
```auto
steps:
- label: ":emoji: Run command in docker image"
key: action-service
plugins:
- docker#v5.4.0:
image: "registry.company.com/company-internal/tool-we-built:v1.0.11"
command: ["command", "subcommand", "--flag", '$(buildkite-agent meta-data get foobar)']
```
How is one supposed to do this?
---
### Author:  [@paula](https://forum.buildkite.community/u/paula)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2023, 10:55pm UTC](https://forum.buildkite.community/t/feeding-meta-data-to-a-docker-plugin-command/2575/2 "2023-02-26T22:55:09Z")
Hi @masper!
Welcome to the community! You’ll probably want to specifically name the environment variable you want to be propagated in the `environment` property of the plug-in: [GitHub - buildkite-plugins/docker-buildkite-plugin: 🐳📦 Run any build step in a Docker container](https://github.com/buildkite-plugins/docker-buildkite-plugin#environment-optional-array)
Best!
---
### Author:  [@masper](https://forum.buildkite.community/u/masper)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2023, 3:20pm UTC](https://forum.buildkite.community/t/feeding-meta-data-to-a-docker-plugin-command/2575/3 "2023-02-27T15:20:48Z")
How? I’m trying to feed it metadata and those aren’t propagated to an environment variable?
---
### Author:  [@masper](https://forum.buildkite.community/u/masper)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2023, 3:28pm UTC](https://forum.buildkite.community/t/feeding-meta-data-to-a-docker-plugin-command/2575/4 "2023-02-27T15:28:02Z")
For context: I’ve tried this
```auto
environment:
- "FOOBAR=$(buildkite-agent meta-data get foobar)"
```
and it was ignored, hence “any environment variables I set are ignored”
---
### Author:  [@masper](https://forum.buildkite.community/u/masper)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2023, 6:31pm UTC](https://forum.buildkite.community/t/feeding-meta-data-to-a-docker-plugin-command/2575/5 "2023-02-27T18:31:46Z")
For people who stumble on this, the method I found workable is this:
```auto
FOODBAR=$$(buildkite-agent meta-data get foobar) buildkite-agent pipeline upload ./.buildkite/another-pipeline.yml
```
in another-pipeline.yml
```auto
steps:
- label: ":emoji: Run command in docker image"
key: action-service
plugins:
- docker#v5.4.0:
image: "registry.company.com/company-internal/tool-we-built:v1.0.11"
environment:
- "FOOBAR=$FOOBAR"
command: ["command", "subcommand", "--flag", "$FOOBAR"]
```
It’s not ideal since you can’t just directly use the plugin, but it’s the “buildkite” way of doing it
---
### Author:  [@paula](https://forum.buildkite.community/u/paula)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2023, 5:39am UTC](https://forum.buildkite.community/t/feeding-meta-data-to-a-docker-plugin-command/2575/6 "2023-08-29T05:39:30Z")