Unclear "secrets" merging behavior in "docker stack"

Reproduce the merge with docker-stack.yml and docker-stack.prod.yml, then run docker stack config -c docker-stack.yml -c docker-stack.prod.yml. Trace how docker stack config merges top-level secrets, and consider the behavior complete when the output preserves external: true alongside the override name instead of adding a file path.

Description

Toplevel secrets defined partially in multiple Docker stack files are merged with an unclear behavior. In this particular case the base file is supposed to only define external: true and the override file define the exact external name.

Reproduce

Have these two files:

version: "3.8"

services:
  app:
    image: foo
    secrets:
      - FOO_BAR

secrets:
  FOO_BAR:
    external: true

version: "3.8"

secrets:
  FOO_BAR:
    name: app-prod-foo-bar

Run docker stack config with these two files:

$ pwd
/home/mbrodala/example
$ docker stack config -c docker-stack.yml -c docker-stack.prod.yml
version: "3.8"
services:
  app:
    image: foo
    secrets:
      - source: FOO_BAR
secrets:
  FOO_BAR:
    name: app-prod-foo-bar
    file: /home/mbrodala/example

Expected behavior

The expected output:

version: "3.8"
services:
  app:
    image: foo
    secrets:
      - source: FOO_BAR
secrets:
  FOO_BAR:
    name: app-prod-foo-bar
    external: true

Incidentally this is exactly what docker compose config produces:

name: example
services:
  app:
    image: foo
    networks:
      default: null
    secrets:
      - source: FOO_BAR
        target: /run/secrets/FOO_BAR
networks:
  default:
    name: example_default
secrets:
  FOO_BAR:
    name: app-prod-foo-bar
    external: true

docker version

Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:           29.7.2
 API version:       1.55
 Go version:        go1.26.5
 Git commit:        a7dcaa6
 Built:             Wed Aug  5 18:29:26 2026
 OS/Arch:           linux/amd64
 Context:           default

Server: Docker Engine - Community
 Engine:
  Version:          29.7.2
  API version:      1.55 (minimum version 1.24)
  Go version:       go1.26.5
  Git commit:       6a43e3d
  Built:            Wed Aug  5 18:29:26 2026
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          v2.3.3
  GitCommit:        aad11006b869517fcd3009450b6f82da282e1a9b
 runc:
  Version:          1.4.3
  GitCommit:        v1.4.3-0-gbb14dabe
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0

docker info

Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:    29.7.2
 Context:    default
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.36.1
    Path:     /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v5.5.0
    Path:     /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
  rollout: Rollout new Compose service version (Karol Musur)
    Version:  v0.9
    Path:     /home/mbrodala/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-rollout

Server:
 Containers: 25
  Running: 9
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 16
 Images: 160
 Server Version: 29.7.2
 Storage Driver: btrfs
  Btrfs: 
 Logging Driver: json-file
 Cgroup Driver: systemd
 Cgroup Version: 2
 Plugins:
  Volume: local
  Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
  Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local splunk syslog
 CDI spec directories:
  /etc/cdi
  /var/run/cdi
 Swarm: inactive
 Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: aad11006b869517fcd3009450b6f82da282e1a9b
 runc version: v1.4.3-0-gbb14dabe
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
  apparmor
  seccomp
   Profile: builtin
  cgroupns
 Kernel Version: 6.16.9+deb14-amd64
 Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux forky/sid
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: x86_64
 CPUs: 4
 Total Memory: 30.79GiB
 Name: yui
 ID: 155711a7-d70b-45a8-a98a-f6144758837a
 Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
 Debug Mode: false
 Username: mbrodala
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  ::1/128
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false
 Firewall Backend: iptables
  EnableUserlandProxy: true
  UserlandProxyPath: /usr/bin/docker-proxy

Additional Info

No response