HelmChart

The HelmChart resource enables declarative Helm chart deployment with templating support. Charts can be referenced from local paths, chart names, or Git repositories.

Use HelmChart when you want explicit chart fields in spec.chart.*.
Use Component when you want compact chart-backed resources with dynamic kind and optional alias indirection.

Note: Git chart references are fully supported. Repositories are cloned automatically to a local cache. See the Git Integration guide for details.

Component resources provide a compact chart-backed format and support local component paths, remote shortcut syntax, and alias-based indirection.

For component syntax, examples, and pattern selection, see:

Resource Definition

apiVersion: nyl.niklasrosenstein.github.com/v1
kind: HelmChart
metadata:
  name: string              # Helm release name
  namespace: string         # Target namespace (optional, defaults to "default")
spec:
  chart:                    # Chart reference (choose one method)
    # Universal fields:
    repository: string      # Repository URL (Git, OCI, or Helm)
    name: string            # Universal name field (context-dependent)
    version: string         # Chart version or Git reference

    # Repository types (indicated by protocol prefix):
    # - Git: repository starts with "git+" (e.g., "git+https://...")
    # - OCI: repository starts with "oci://" (e.g., "oci://ghcr.io/...")
    # - Helm: plain HTTPS URL (e.g., "https://charts.example.com")
    # - Local: no repository, name is filesystem path

  values: object            # Chart values (merged with profile values)

Chart Reference Methods

Local Path

Reference a chart by filesystem path (absolute or relative) using the name field:

apiVersion: nyl.niklasrosenstein.github.com/v1
kind: HelmChart
metadata:
  name: nginx
  namespace: default
spec:
  chart:
    name: ./charts/nginx

Chart Name

Reference a chart by name (without path separators), searched in configured search paths:

apiVersion: nyl.niklasrosenstein.github.com/v1
kind: HelmChart
metadata:
  name: nginx
  namespace: default
spec:
  chart:
    name: nginx

Configure search paths in nyl.toml:

[project]
helm_chart_search_paths = ["./charts", "/opt/helm-charts"]

Git Repository

Reference a chart from a Git repository using the git+ protocol prefix:

apiVersion: nyl.niklasrosenstein.github.com/v1
kind: HelmChart
metadata:
  name: nginx
  namespace: default
spec:
  chart:
    repository: git+https://github.com/bitnami/charts.git
    version: main
    name: bitnami/nginx

Git Parameters:

repository (required): Git repository URL with git+ prefix (HTTPS or SSH)
version (optional): Branch, tag, or commit SHA (default: HEAD)
name (optional): Subdirectory within the repository containing the chart

Helm Dependencies:

Charts from Git repositories with dependencies are automatically handled. If your chart has a Chart.yaml with dependencies or a Chart.lock file, Nyl will automatically run helm dependency build to fetch and build the dependencies before rendering the chart.

Examples:

# Latest from main branch
chart:
  repository: git+https://github.com/example/charts.git
  version: main
  name: charts/myapp

# Specific version tag
chart:
  repository: git+https://github.com/example/charts.git
  version: v2.1.0
  name: charts/myapp

# Specific commit
chart:
  repository: git+https://github.com/example/charts.git
  version: abc123def456
  name: charts/myapp

# Root of repository (no subpath)
chart:
  repository: git+https://github.com/example/simple-chart.git
  version: main

# SSH URL
chart:
  repository: git+git@github.com:example/charts.git
  version: main
  name: charts/myapp

See Git Integration for more details on Git support.

Release Configuration

The Helm release is configured via the metadata fields:

metadata:
  name: myapp           # Helm release name
  namespace: production # Target namespace

Defaults:

namespace: Uses default if not specified

Creating Namespaces

If you need to create the namespace before deploying the chart, add a Namespace resource:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: production
---
apiVersion: nyl.niklasrosenstein.github.com/v1
kind: HelmChart
metadata:
  name: myapp
  namespace: production
spec:
  chart:
    name: ./charts/myapp
  values:
    replicas: 3

When using ArgoCD, you can alternatively enable automatic namespace creation:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
spec:
  syncPolicy:
    syncOptions:
      - CreateNamespace=true

Values

Chart values can be provided in multiple ways:

Inline Values

spec:
  values:
    image:
      repository: nginx
      tag: "1.25"
    replicas: 3
    service:
      type: LoadBalancer

Profile Values

Values from the active profile are automatically merged:

[profile.values.production]
replicas = 5

[profile.values.production.resources.requests]
cpu = "500m"
memory = "512Mi"

Inline values take precedence over profile values.

Templating in Values

Values support Jinja2 templating:

spec:
  values:
    image:
      tag: "{{ env.NYL_IMAGE_TAG }}"
    environment: "{{ profile }}"

Complete Example

apiVersion: nyl.niklasrosenstein.github.com/v1
kind: NylRelease
metadata:
  name: myapp
  namespace: production
---
apiVersion: nyl.niklasrosenstein.github.com/v1
kind: HelmChart
metadata:
  name: myapp
  namespace: production
spec:
  chart:
    repository: git+https://github.com/company/charts.git
    version: v2.1.0
    name: applications/myapp
  values:
    replicas: 3
    image:
      repository: company/myapp
      tag: "{{ env.VERSION }}"
    ingress:
      enabled: true
      host: myapp.example.com
    resources:
      requests:
        cpu: 500m
        memory: 512Mi
      limits:
        cpu: 1000m
        memory: 1Gi

Multi-Environment Deployments

Use the same chart with different values per environment:

# base manifest
apiVersion: nyl.niklasrosenstein.github.com/v1
kind: HelmChart
metadata:
  name: myapp
spec:
  chart:
    repository: git+https://github.com/company/charts.git
    version: stable
    name: myapp
  values:
    # Base values here

[profile.values.development]
replicas = 1
environment = "development"

[profile.values.development.image]
tag = "latest"

[profile.values.production]
replicas = 5
environment = "production"

[profile.values.production.image]
tag = "v2.1.0"

[profile.values.production.resources.requests]
cpu = "1000m"

Render for specific environment:

nyl render --profile production app.yaml

Nyl Documentation