helm Deploy

Description

Specify a Helm chart (either in your repository or remote from a registry) to deploy.

Refer to the Helm guide for usage instructions.

Garden uses Helm 3.16.2.

Below is the full schema reference for the action. For an introduction to configuring Garden, please look at our Configuration guide.

helm actions also export values that are available in template strings. See the Outputs section below for details.

Configuration Keys

type

The type of action, e.g. exec, container or kubernetes. Some are built into Garden but mostly these will be defined by your configured providers.

Type	Required
string	Yes

name

A valid name for the action. Must be unique across all actions of the same kind in your project.

Type	Required
string	Yes

description

A description of the action.

Type	Required
string	No

source

By default, the directory where the action is defined is used as the source for the build context.

You can override this by setting either source.path to another (POSIX-style) path relative to the action source directory, or source.repository to get the source from an external repository.

If using source.path, you must make sure the target path is in a git repository.

For source.repository behavior, please refer to the Remote Sources guide.

Type	Required
object	No

source.path

source > path

A relative POSIX-style path to the source directory for this action. You must make sure this path exists and is in a git repository!

Type	Required
posixPath	No

source.repository

source > repository

When set, Garden will import the action source from this repository, but use this action configuration (and not scan for configs in the separate repository).

Type	Required
object	No

source.repository.url

source > repository > url

A remote repository URL. Currently only supports git servers. Must contain a hash suffix pointing to a specific branch or tag, with the format: #<branch|tag>

Type	Required
gitUrl | string	Yes

Example:

source:
  ...
  repository:
    ...
    url: "git+https://github.com/org/repo.git#v2.0"

dependencies[]

A list of other actions that this action depends on, and should be built, deployed or run (depending on the action type) before processing this action.

Each dependency should generally be expressed as a "<kind>.<name>" string, where is one of build, deploy, run or test, and is the name of the action to depend on.

You may also optionally specify a dependency as an object, e.g. { kind: "Build", name: "some-image" }.

Any empty values (i.e. null or empty strings) are ignored, so that you can conditionally add in a dependency via template expressions.

Type	Default	Required
array[actionReference]	[]	No

Example:

dependencies:
  - build.my-image
  - deploy.api

disabled

Set this to true to disable the action. You can use this with conditional template strings to disable actions based on, for example, the current environment or other variables (e.g. disabled: ${environment.name == "prod"}). This can be handy when you only need certain actions for specific environments, e.g. only for development.

For Build actions, this means the build is not performed unless it is declared as a dependency by another enabled action (in which case the Build is assumed to be necessary for the dependant action to be run or built).

For other action kinds, the action is skipped in all scenarios, and dependency declarations to it are ignored. Note however that template strings referencing outputs (i.e. runtime outputs) will fail to resolve when the action is disabled, so you need to make sure to provide alternate values for those if you're using them, using conditional expressions.

Type	Default	Required
boolean	false	No

environments[]

If set, the action is only enabled for the listed environment types. This is effectively a cleaner shorthand for the disabled field with an expression for environments. For example, environments: ["prod"] is equivalent to disabled: ${environment.name != "prod"}.

Type	Required
array[string]	No

include[]

Specify a list of POSIX-style paths or globs that should be regarded as source files for this action, and thus will affect the computed version of the action.

For actions other than Build actions, this is usually not necessary to specify, or is implicitly inferred. An exception would be e.g. an exec action without a build reference, where the relevant files cannot be inferred and you want to define which files should affect the version of the action, e.g. to make sure a Test action is run when certain files are modified.

Build actions have a different behavior, since they generally are based on some files in the source tree, so please reference the docs for more information on those.

Note that you can also exclude files using the exclude field or by placing .gardenignore files in your source tree, which use the same format as .gitignore files. See the Configuration Files guide for details.

Type	Required
array[posixPath]	No

Example:

include:
  - my-app.js
  - some-assets/**/*

exclude[]

Specify a list of POSIX-style paths or glob patterns that should be explicitly excluded from the action's version.

For actions other than Build actions, this is usually not necessary to specify, or is implicitly inferred. For Deploy, Run and Test actions, the exclusions specified here only applied on top of explicitly set include paths, or such paths inferred by providers. See the Configuration Files guide for details.

Unlike the scan.exclude field in the project config, the filters here have no effect on which files and directories are watched for changes when watching is enabled. Use the project scan.exclude field to affect those, if you have large directories that should not be watched for changes.

Type	Required
array[posixPath]	No

Example:

exclude:
  - tmp/**/*
  - '*.log'

variables

A map of variables scoped to this particular action. These are resolved before any other parts of the action configuration and take precedence over group-scoped variables (if applicable) and project-scoped variables, in that order. They may reference group-scoped and project-scoped variables, and generally can use any template strings normally allowed when resolving the action.

Type	Required
object	No

varfiles[]

Specify a list of paths (relative to the directory where the action is defined) to a file containing variables, that we apply on top of the action-level variables field, and take precedence over group-level variables (if applicable) and project-level variables, in that order.

If you specify multiple paths, they are merged in the order specified, i.e. the last one takes precedence over the previous ones.

The format of the files is determined by the configured file's extension:

• .yaml/.yml - YAML. The file must consist of a YAML document, which must be a map (dictionary). Keys may contain any value type. YAML format is used by default.

• .env - Standard "dotenv" format, as defined by dotenv.

• .json - JSON. Must contain a single JSON object (not an array).

NOTE: The default varfile format was changed to YAML in Garden v0.13, since YAML allows for definition of nested objects and arrays.

To use different varfiles in different environments, you can template in the environment name to the varfile name, e.g. varfile: "my-action.${environment.name}.env" (this assumes that the corresponding varfiles exist).

If a listed varfile cannot be found, throwing an error. To add optional varfiles, you can use a list item object with a path and an optional optional boolean field.

varfiles:
  - path: my-action.env
    optional: true

Type	Default	Required
array[alternatives]	[]	No

Example:

varfiles:
  "my-action.env"

varfiles[].path

varfiles > path

Path to a file containing a path.

Type	Required
posixPath	Yes

varfiles[].optional

varfiles > optional

Whether the varfile is optional.

Type	Required
boolean	No

build

Specify a Build action, and resolve this action from the context of that Build.

For example, you might create an exec Build which prepares some manifests, and then reference that in a kubernetes Deploy action, and the resulting manifests from the Build.

This would mean that instead of looking for manifest files relative to this action's location in your project structure, the output directory for the referenced exec Build would be the source.

Type	Required
string	No

kind

Type	Allowed Values	Required
string	"Deploy"	Yes

timeout

Timeout for the deploy to complete, in seconds.

Type	Default	Required
number	300	No

spec

Type	Required
object	No

spec.namespace

spec > namespace

A valid Kubernetes namespace name. Must be a valid RFC1035/RFC1123 (DNS) label (may contain lowercase letters, numbers and dashes, must start with a letter, and cannot end with a dash) and must not be longer than 63 characters.

Type	Required
string	No

spec.portForwards[]

spec > portForwards

Manually specify port forwards that Garden should set up when deploying in dev or watch mode. If specified, these override the auto-detection of forwardable ports, so you'll need to specify the full list of port forwards to create.

Type	Required
array[object]	No

spec.portForwards[].name

spec > portForwards > name

An identifier to describe the port forward.

Type	Required
string	No

spec.portForwards[].resource

spec > portForwards > resource

The full resource kind and name to forward to, e.g. Service/my-service or Deployment/my-deployment. Note that Garden will not validate this ahead of attempting to start the port forward, so you need to make sure this is correctly set. The types of resources supported will match that of the kubectl port-forward CLI command.

Type	Required
string	Yes

spec.portForwards[].targetPort

spec > portForwards > targetPort

The port number on the remote resource to forward to.

Type	Required
number	Yes

spec.portForwards[].localPort

spec > portForwards > localPort

The preferred local port to forward from. If none is set, a random port is chosen. If the specified port is not available, a warning is shown and a random port chosen instead.

Type	Required
number	No

spec.releaseName

spec > releaseName

Optionally override the release name used when installing (defaults to the Deploy name).

Type	Required
string	No

spec.timeout

spec > timeout

Time in seconds to wait for Helm to complete any individual Kubernetes operation (like Jobs for hooks).

Type	Default	Required
number	300	No

spec.values

spec > values

Map of values to pass to Helm when rendering the templates. May include arrays and nested objects. When specified, these take precedence over the values in the values.yaml file (or the files specified in valueFiles).

Type	Default	Required
object	{}	No

spec.valueFiles[]

spec > valueFiles

Specify value files to use when rendering the Helm chart. These will take precedence over the values.yaml file bundled in the Helm chart, and should be specified in ascending order of precedence. Meaning, the last file in this list will have the highest precedence.

If you also specify keys under the values field, those will effectively be added as another file at the end of this list, so they will take precedence over other files listed here.

Note that the paths here should be relative to the config root, and the files should be contained in this action config's directory.

Type	Default	Required
array[posixPath]	[]	No

spec.atomic

spec > atomic

Whether to set the --atomic flag during installs and upgrades. Set to true if you'd like the changes applied to be reverted on failure. Set to false if e.g. you want to see more information about failures and then manually roll back, instead of having Helm do it automatically on failure.

Note that setting atomic to true implies wait.

Type	Default	Required
boolean	false	No

spec.waitForUnhealthyResources

spec > waitForUnhealthyResources

Whether to wait for the Helm command to complete before throwing an error if one of the resources being installed/upgraded is unhealthy.

By default, Garden will monitor the resources being created by Helm and throw an error as soon as one of them is unhealthy. This allows Garden to fail fast if there's an issue with one of the resources. If no issue is detected, Garden waits for the Helm command to complete.

If however waitForUnhealthyResources is set to true and some resources are unhealthy, then Garden will wait for Helm itself to throw an error which typically happens when it times out in the case of unhealthy resources (e.g. due to ImagePullBackOff or CrashLoopBackOff errors).

Waiting for the timeout can take awhile so using the default value here is recommended unless you'd like to completely mimic Helm's behaviour and not rely on Garden's resource monitoring.

Note that setting atomic to true implies waitForUnhealthyResources.

Type	Default	Required
boolean	false	No

spec.chart

spec > chart

Specify the Helm chart to use.

If the chart is defined in the same directory as the action, you can skip this, and the chart sources will be detected. If the chart is in the source tree but in a sub-directory, you should set chart.path to the directory path, relative to the action directory.

For remote charts, there are multiple options:

• Helm Chart repository: specify chart.name and chart.version\, and optionally chart.repo` (if the chart is not in the default "stable" repo).

• OCI-Based Registry: specify chart.url with the oci:// URL and optionally chart.version.

• Absolute URL to a packaged chart: specify chart.url.

One of chart.name, chart.path or chart.url must be specified.

Type	Required
object	No

spec.chart.name

spec > chart > name

A valid Helm chart name or URI (same as you'd input to helm install) Required if the action doesn't contain the Helm chart itself.

Type	Required
string	No

Example:

spec:
  ...
  chart:
    ...
    name: "ingress-nginx"

spec.chart.path

spec > chart > path

The path, relative to the action path, to the chart sources (i.e. where the Chart.yaml file is, if any).

Type	Required
posixPath	No

spec.chart.repo

spec > chart > repo

The repository URL to fetch the chart from. Defaults to the "stable" helm repo (https://charts.helm.sh/stable).

Type	Required
string	No

spec.chart.url

spec > chart > url

URL to OCI repository, or a URL to a packaged Helm chart archive.

Type	Required
string	No

spec.chart.version

spec > chart > version

The chart version to deploy.

Type	Required
string	No

spec.defaultTarget

spec > defaultTarget

Specify a default resource in the deployment to use for syncs, local mode, and for the garden exec command.

Specify either kind and name, or a podSelector. The resource should be one of the resources deployed by this action (otherwise the target is not guaranteed to be deployed with adjustments required for syncing or local mode).

Set containerName to specify a container to connect to in the remote Pod. By default the first container in the Pod is used.

Note that if you specify podSelector here, it is not validated to be a selector matching one of the resources deployed by the action.

Type	Required
object	No

spec.defaultTarget.kind

spec > defaultTarget > kind

The kind of Kubernetes resource to find.

Type	Allowed Values	Required
string	"Deployment", "DaemonSet", "StatefulSet"	Yes

spec.defaultTarget.name

spec > defaultTarget > name

The name of the resource, of the specified kind. If specified, you must also specify kind.

Type	Required
string	No

spec.defaultTarget.podSelector

spec > defaultTarget > podSelector

A map of string key/value labels to match on any Pods in the namespace. When specified, a random ready Pod with matching labels will be picked as a target, so make sure the labels will always match a specific Pod type.

Type	Required
object	No

spec.defaultTarget.containerName

spec > defaultTarget > containerName

The name of a container in the target. Specify this if the target contains more than one container and the main container is not the first container in the spec.

Type	Required
string	No

spec.sync

spec > sync

Configure path syncs for the resources in this Deploy.

If you have multiple syncs for the Deploy, you can use the defaults field to set common configuration for every individual sync.

Type	Required
object	No

spec.sync.defaults

spec > sync > defaults

Defaults to set across every sync for this Deploy. If you use the exclude field here, it will be merged with any excludes set in individual syncs. These are applied on top of any defaults set in the provider configuration.

Type	Required
object	No

spec.sync.defaults.exclude[]

spec > sync > defaults > exclude

Specify a list of POSIX-style paths or glob patterns that should be excluded from the sync.

Any exclusion patterns defined in individual sync specs will be applied in addition to these patterns.

.git directories and .garden directories are always ignored.

Type	Required
array[posixPath]	No

Example:

spec:
  ...
  sync:
    ...
    defaults:
      ...
      exclude:
        - dist/**/*
        - '*.log'

spec.sync.defaults.fileMode

spec > sync > defaults > fileMode

The default permission bits, specified as an octal, to set on files at the sync target. Defaults to 0o644 (user can read/write, everyone else can read). See the Mutagen docs for more information.

Type	Default	Required
number	0o644	No

spec.sync.defaults.directoryMode

spec > sync > defaults > directoryMode

The default permission bits, specified as an octal, to set on directories at the sync target. Defaults to 0o755 (user can read/write, everyone else can read). See the Mutagen docs for more information.

Type	Default	Required
number	0o755	No

spec.sync.defaults.owner

spec > sync > defaults > owner

Set the default owner of files and directories at the target. Specify either an integer ID or a string name. See the Mutagen docs for more information.

Type	Required
number | string	No

spec.sync.defaults.group

spec > sync > defaults > group

Set the default group on files and directories at the target. Specify either an integer ID or a string name. See the Mutagen docs for more information.

Type	Required
number | string	No

spec.sync.paths[]

spec > sync > paths

A list of syncs to start once the Deploy is successfully started.

Type	Required
array[object]	No

spec.sync.paths[].target

spec > sync > paths > target

The Kubernetes resource to sync to. If specified, this is used instead of spec.defaultTarget.

Type	Required
object	No

spec.sync.paths[].target.kind

spec > sync > paths > target > kind

The kind of Kubernetes resource to find.

Type	Allowed Values	Required
string	"Deployment", "DaemonSet", "StatefulSet"	Yes

spec.sync.paths[].target.name

spec > sync > paths > target > name

The name of the resource, of the specified kind. If specified, you must also specify kind.

Type	Required
string	No

spec.sync.paths[].target.podSelector

spec > sync > paths > target > podSelector

A map of string key/value labels to match on any Pods in the namespace. When specified, a random ready Pod with matching labels will be picked as a target, so make sure the labels will always match a specific Pod type.

Type	Required
object	No

spec.sync.paths[].target.containerName

spec > sync > paths > target > containerName

The name of a container in the target. Specify this if the target contains more than one container and the main container is not the first container in the spec.

Type	Required
string	No

spec.sync.paths[].sourcePath

spec > sync > paths > sourcePath

Path to a local directory to be synchronized with the target. This should generally be a templated path to another action's source path (e.g. ${actions.build.my-container-image.sourcePath}), or a relative path. If a path is hard-coded, we recommend sticking with relative paths here, and using forward slashes (/) as a delimiter, as Windows-style paths with back slashes (\) and absolute paths will work on some platforms, but they are not portable and will not work for users on other platforms. Defaults to the Deploy action's config's directory if no value is provided.

Type	Default	Required
string	"."	No

Example:

spec:
  ...
  sync:
    ...
    paths:
      - sourcePath: "src"

spec.sync.paths[].containerPath

spec > sync > paths > containerPath

POSIX-style absolute path to sync to inside the container. The root path (i.e. "/") is not allowed.

Type	Required
posixPath	Yes

Example:

spec:
  ...
  sync:
    ...
    paths:
      - containerPath: "/app/src"

spec.sync.paths[].exclude[]

spec > sync > paths > exclude

Specify a list of POSIX-style paths or glob patterns that should be excluded from the sync.

.git directories and .garden directories are always ignored.

Type	Required
array[posixPath]	No

Example:

spec:
  ...
  sync:
    ...
    paths:
      - exclude:
          - dist/**/*
          - '*.log'

spec.sync.paths[].mode

spec > sync > paths > mode

The sync mode to use for the given paths. See the Code Synchronization guide for details.

Type	Allowed Values	Default	Required
string	"one-way", "one-way-safe", "one-way-replica", "one-way-reverse", "one-way-replica-reverse", "two-way", "two-way-safe", "two-way-resolved"	"one-way-safe"	Yes

spec.sync.paths[].defaultFileMode

spec > sync > paths > defaultFileMode

The default permission bits, specified as an octal, to set on files at the sync target. Defaults to 0o644 (user can read/write, everyone else can read). See the Mutagen docs for more information.

Type	Default	Required
number	0o644	No

spec.sync.paths[].defaultDirectoryMode

spec > sync > paths > defaultDirectoryMode

The default permission bits, specified as an octal, to set on directories at the sync target. Defaults to 0o755 (user can read/write, everyone else can read). See the Mutagen docs for more information.

Type	Default	Required
number	0o755	No

spec.sync.paths[].defaultOwner

spec > sync > paths > defaultOwner

Set the default owner of files and directories at the target. Specify either an integer ID or a string name. See the Mutagen docs for more information.

Type	Required
number | string	No

spec.sync.paths[].defaultGroup

spec > sync > paths > defaultGroup

Set the default group on files and directories at the target. Specify either an integer ID or a string name. See the Mutagen docs for more information.

Type	Required
number | string	No

spec.sync.overrides[]

spec > sync > overrides

Overrides for the container command and/or arguments for when in sync mode.

Type	Required
array[object]	No

spec.sync.overrides[].target

spec > sync > overrides > target

The Kubernetes resources to override. If specified, this is used instead of spec.defaultTarget.

Type	Required
object	No

spec.sync.overrides[].target.kind

spec > sync > overrides > target > kind

The kind of Kubernetes resource to find.

Type	Allowed Values	Required
string	"Deployment", "DaemonSet", "StatefulSet"	Yes

spec.sync.overrides[].target.name

spec > sync > overrides > target > name

The name of the resource, of the specified kind. If specified, you must also specify kind.

Type	Required
string	No

spec.sync.overrides[].target.podSelector

spec > sync > overrides > target > podSelector

A map of string key/value labels to match on any Pods in the namespace. When specified, a random ready Pod with matching labels will be picked as a target, so make sure the labels will always match a specific Pod type.

Type	Required
object	No

spec.sync.overrides[].target.containerName

spec > sync > overrides > target > containerName

The name of a container in the target. Specify this if the target contains more than one container and the main container is not the first container in the spec.

Type	Required
string	No

spec.sync.overrides[].command[]

spec > sync > overrides > command

Override the command/entrypoint in the matched container.

Type	Required
array[string]	No

spec.sync.overrides[].args[]

spec > sync > overrides > args

Override the args in the matched container.

Type	Required
array[string]	No

spec.sync.overrides[].image

spec > sync > overrides > image

Override the image of the matched container.

Type	Required
string	No

spec.localMode

spec > localMode

[EXPERIMENTAL] Configures the local application which will send and receive network requests instead of the target resource specified by localMode.target or defaultTarget. One of those fields must be specified to enable local mode for the action.

The selected container of the target Kubernetes resource will be replaced by a proxy container which runs an SSH server to proxy requests. Reverse port-forwarding will be automatically configured to route traffic to the locally run application and back.

Local mode is enabled by setting the --local option on the garden deploy command. Local mode always takes the precedence over sync mode if there are any conflicting service names.

Health checks are disabled for services running in local mode.

See the Local Mode guide for more information.

Note! This feature is still experimental. Some incompatible changes can be made until the first non-experimental release.

Type	Required
object	No

spec.localMode.ports[]

spec > localMode > ports

The reverse port-forwards configuration for the local application.

Type	Required
array[object]	No

spec.localMode.ports[].local

spec > localMode > ports > local

The local port to be used for reverse port-forward.

Type	Required
number	No

spec.localMode.ports[].remote

spec > localMode > ports > remote

The remote port to be used for reverse port-forward.

Type	Required
number	No

spec.localMode.command[]

spec > localMode > command

The command to run the local application. If not present, then the local application should be started manually.

Type	Required
array[string]	No

spec.localMode.restart

spec > localMode > restart

Specifies restarting policy for the local application. By default, the local application will be restarting infinitely with 1000ms between attempts.

Type	Default	Required
object	{"delayMsec":1000,"max":null}	No

spec.localMode.restart.delayMsec

spec > localMode > restart > delayMsec

Delay in milliseconds between the local application restart attempts. The default value is 1000ms.

Type	Default	Required
number	1000	No

spec.localMode.restart.max

spec > localMode > restart > max

Max number of the local application restarts. Unlimited by default.

Type	Default	Required
number	null	No

spec.localMode.target

spec > localMode > target

The remote Kubernetes resource to proxy traffic from. If specified, this is used instead of defaultTarget.

Type	Required
object	No

spec.localMode.target.kind

spec > localMode > target > kind

The kind of Kubernetes resource to find.

Type	Allowed Values	Required
string	"Deployment", "DaemonSet", "StatefulSet"	Yes

spec.localMode.target.name

spec > localMode > target > name

The name of the resource, of the specified kind. If specified, you must also specify kind.

Type	Required
string	No

spec.localMode.target.podSelector

spec > localMode > target > podSelector

A map of string key/value labels to match on any Pods in the namespace. When specified, a random ready Pod with matching labels will be picked as a target, so make sure the labels will always match a specific Pod type.

Type	Required
object	No

spec.localMode.target.containerName

spec > localMode > target > containerName

The name of a container in the target. Specify this if the target contains more than one container and the main container is not the first container in the spec.

Type	Required
string	No

Outputs

The following keys are available via the ${actions.deploy.<name>} template string key for helm action.

${actions.deploy.<name>.name}

The name of the action.

Type
string

${actions.deploy.<name>.disabled}

Whether the action is disabled.

Type
boolean

Example:

my-variable: ${actions.deploy.my-deploy.disabled}

${actions.deploy.<name>.buildPath}

The local path to the action build directory.

Type
string

Example:

my-variable: ${actions.deploy.my-deploy.buildPath}

${actions.deploy.<name>.sourcePath}

The local path to the action source directory.

Type
string

Example:

my-variable: ${actions.deploy.my-deploy.sourcePath}

${actions.deploy.<name>.mode}

The mode that the action should be executed in (e.g. 'sync' or 'local' for Deploy actions). Set to 'default' if no special mode is being used.

Build actions inherit the mode from Deploy actions that depend on them. E.g. If a Deploy action is in 'sync' mode and depends on a Build action, the Build action will inherit the 'sync' mode setting from the Deploy action. This enables installing different tools that may be necessary for different development modes.

Type	Default
string	"default"

Example:

my-variable: ${actions.deploy.my-deploy.mode}

${actions.deploy.<name>.var.*}

The variables configured on the action.

Type	Default
object	{}

${actions.deploy.<name>.var.<name>}

Type
string | number | boolean | link | array[link]