Bitbucket pipeline - assign custom variables

Question

I would like to assign custom variables using bash commands

image: alpine

pipelines:
  default:
      - step:
          name: docker-login
          services:
            - docker
          script:
            - docker login --username $DOCKER_USERNAME --password $DOCKER_PASSWORD
            - echo "logged in to docker hub"
            - echo $VERSION
          variables:
            VERSION: cat ./version.txt
      - step: 
          name: build-image
          services:
            - docker
          script:
            - echo "running docker image test"
      - step:
          name: 'set ssh env'
          script:
            - pipe: atlassian/ssh-run:0.4.0
              variables:
                SSH_USER: $SSH_USER
                SERVER: '$HOST'
                COMMAND: 'pwd'

I am not getting the output of the file.. what is the correct syntax?

Answer 1

"Setup environment variables in bitbucket-pipelines.yml" is currently an open suggestion gathering interest on Bitbucket Cloud: BCLOUD-17453