helm-template

helm-template renders a specified Helm chart to a specified directory or to many files in a specified directory. This step is useful for the common scenario of rendering Stage-specific manifests to a Stage-specific branch. This step is commonly preceded by a git-clear step and followed by git-commit and git-push steps.

Configuration

Name	Type	Required	Description
path	string	Y	Path to a Helm chart (i.e. to a directory containing a Chart.yaml file). This path is relative to the temporary workspace that Kargo provisions for use by the promotion process.
outPath	string	Y	Path to the file or directory where rendered manifests are to be written. If the path ends with .yaml or .yml it is presumed to indicate a file and is otherwise presumed to indicate a directory.
outLayout	string	N	OutLayout to use for the rendered manifest. This can be either helm or flat. The helm layout will create a directory with the chart name and place the rendered manifests in that directory. The flat layout will place all rendered manifests in the outPath directory without any subdirectories. This is helm by default.
releaseName	string	Y	Release name to use when rendering the manifests.
useReleaseName	boolean	N	Whether to use the release name in the output path (instead of the chart name). This is false by default, and only has an effect when outPath is set to a directory.
namespace	string	N	Optional namespace to use when rendering the manifests. This is commonly omitted. GitOps agents such as Argo CD will generally ensure the installation of manifests into the namespace specified by their own configuration.
valuesFiles	[]string	N	Helm values files (apart from the chart's default values.yaml) to be used when rendering the manifests.
ignoreMissingValueFiles	boolean	N	Whether to skip value files that do not exist instead of returning an error. Useful for optional stage-specific overlays. This is false by default.
buildDependencies	bool	N	Whether to build dependencies before rendering the manifests. If no Chart.lock file is present, the dependencies will be built from the Chart.yaml file (and may be updated). This is false by default.
includeCRDs	boolean	N	Whether to include CRDs in the rendered manifests. This is false by default.
disableHooks	boolean	N	Whether to disable hooks in the rendered manifests. This is false by default.
skipTests	boolean	N	Whether to skip tests when rendering the manifests. This is false by default.
kubeVersion	string	N	Optionally specifies a Kubernetes version to be assumed when rendering manifests. This is useful for charts that may contain logic specific to different Kubernetes versions.
apiVersions	[]string	N	Allows a manual set of supported API versions to be specified.
setValues	[]object	N	Allows for amending chart configuration inline as one would with the helm template command's --set flag.
setValues[].key	string	N	The key whose value should be set. For nested values, use dots to delimit key parts. e.g. image.tag.
setValues[].value	string	N	The new value for the key.
setValues[].literal	boolean	N	Whether to force the value to be treated as a literal string. When true, uses --set-literal instead of --set. This is false by default.

Examples

Rendering to a File

In this example, a Helm chart is rendered to a single output file. After cloning the repository and clearing the output directory, the helm-template step reads the chart from ./src/charts/my-chart and uses stage-specific values from ${{ ctx.stage }}-values.yaml to render the manifests. The rendered output is written to a single file at ./out/manifests.yaml rather than being split across multiple files.

This approach is useful when you want to maintain all manifests in a single file for easier tracking or when working with tools that expect a single input file.

vars:
- name: gitRepo
  value: https://github.com/example/repo.git
steps:
- uses: git-clone
  config:
    repoURL: ${{ vars.gitRepo }}
    checkout:
    - commit: ${{ commitFrom(vars.gitRepo).ID }}
      path: ./src
    - branch: stage/${{ ctx.stage }}
      create: true
      path: ./out
- uses: git-clear
  config:
    path: ./out
- uses: helm-template
  config:
    path: ./src/charts/my-chart
    valuesFiles:
    - ./src/charts/my-chart/${{ ctx.stage }}-values.yaml
    outPath: ./out/manifests.yaml
# Commit, push, etc...

Rendering to a Directory

In this example, a Helm chart is rendered with its output split across multiple files in a directory. Similar to the previous example, it clones the repository and clears the output directory, but instead of specifying a single output file, it directs the helm-template step to write to the ./out directory. This means each Kubernetes resource will be written to its own file, maintaining the traditional Helm output structure (i.e. the structure of the Helm chart).

This approach is useful when you want to maintain separation between different resources or when working with tools that expect resources to be in separate files.

vars:
- name: gitRepo
  value: https://github.com/example/repo.git
steps:
- uses: git-clone
  config:
    repoURL: ${{ vars.gitRepo }}
    checkout:
    - commit: ${{ commitFrom(vars.gitRepo).ID }}
      path: ./src
    - branch: stage/${{ ctx.stage }}
      create: true
      path: ./out
- uses: git-clear
  config:
    path: ./out
- uses: helm-template
  config:
    path: ./src/charts/my-chart
    valuesFiles:
    - ./src/charts/my-chart/${{ ctx.stage }}-values.yaml
    outPath: ./out
    releaseName: my-chart
# Commit, push, etc...