The correct syntax is to use $(FOO), as is described in the v1.EnvVar value: documentationthe documentation; the syntax you have used is "shell" syntax, which isn't the way kubernetes interpolates variables. So:
containers: - env: - name: POD_ID valueFrom: # etc etc - name: LOG_PATH value: /var/log/mycompany/$(POD_ID)/logs Also please note that, as mentioned in the Docs, the variable to expand must be defined before the variable referencing it.