Helm Sink¶

varTrack writes config values to a Helm release. Git becomes the source of truth for Helm chart configuration.

Configuration¶

datasources: [{
  helm: {
    tag:        ""
    namespace:  "default"
    kubeconfig_path: "/path/to/kubeconfig"   // optional — uses in-cluster config if absent
  }
}]

Orchestrator image

This sink runs the helm CLI, which the orchestrator image leaves out by default. Build it with --build-arg HELM_VERSION=v3.16.3.

Destination template¶

The destination_template sets the Helm release name:

rules: [{
  platform:             "github"
  datasource:           "helm"
  file_name:           "app-settings.yaml"
  branch_map:           {main: "production"}
  destination_template: "myapp-{env}"
}]

Push branch	Helm release updated
`main`	`myapp-production`
`develop`	`myapp-staging`

Upgrade strategies¶

datasources: [{
  helm: {
    release_name:     "myapp"
    chart_name:       "./charts/myapp"
    upgrade_strategy: "INSTALL_OR_UPGRADE"
  }
}]

Strategy	What it runs
`INSTALL_OR_UPGRADE`	`helm upgrade --install --create-namespace RELEASE CHART --set …` — installs the release the first time, upgrades it after
`FULL_UPGRADE`	`helm upgrade RELEASE CHART --set …` — chart and values; the release must already exist
`VALUES_ONLY`	`helm upgrade RELEASE CHART --reuse-values --set …` — sets varTrack's values on the existing release and keeps its other values; the release must already exist
unset	No Helm command: the values are written to a values file (`values_file_path` on the Helm datasource, default `values.yaml`) for other tooling to apply; the file is replaced in one rename, so a reader never sees a half-written one

chart_version adds --version and chart_repo adds --repo. Values go in as --set flags; helm_values_mode: "file" in the rule passes them as a values file instead.

# INSTALL_OR_UPGRADE, release myapp-production
helm upgrade --install --create-namespace myapp-production ./charts/myapp \
  --namespace default --history-max 10 \
  --set database.host=mongo.prod.internal \
  --set maxConnections=50

Chart configuration¶

datasources: [{
  helm: {
    chart_name:    "myapp"
    chart_version: "1.2.3"     // optional — pin chart version
    chart_repo:    "https://charts.myorg.com"
  }
}]

Upgrade options¶

datasources: [{
  helm: {
    wait:            true    // wait for all resources to be ready
    wait_timeout:    "5m"   // timeout for --wait
    atomic:          true    // roll back on failure
    force:           false   // force resource updates
    cleanup_on_fail: true    // delete new resources if upgrade fails
    no_hooks:        false   // skip pre/post-upgrade hooks
    max_history:     10      // number of release versions to keep
  }
}]

Drift detection¶

The watcher asks the orchestrator each poll; the orchestrator reads the release's current values and compares them with what it last synced from Git — a changed or missing key is drift (Drift Detection).

rules: [{
  platform:   "github"
  datasource: "helm"
  file_name: "app-settings.yaml"
  branch_map: {main: "production"}
  self_heal:  true
}]