kustomize VS kubevela

kustomize: brew install kustomize

It's a built in feature of kustomize https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/blob/master/api/types/helmchartargs.go

I think the combination of Kustomize and helm works in my experience. For advanced use cases, you can also see KRM functions in Kustomize.

See for instance a related issue: https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/issues/3866

Using a strategic merge is the safest way so you avoid the index fragility.

Rendering out the manifests is something I have been pushing for. Not having to understand how every templating tool works and what actually is being changed is key. Though, it gets complicated when you use helm (or any templating/patching tool) that produces many variants. You also lose any release/deployment time hooks that are provided (helm hooks or recently "patched" kustomize env variables).

https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/blob/master/examples/chart.md (edit: oh I see the other commenter also included this link, oops)

Kustomize is an open-source project that “lets you customize raw, template-free YAML files for multiple purposes, leaving the original YAML untouched and usable as is.” It’s now the most popular tool for customizing Kubernetes manifests reasonably, and it’s even built directly into the Kubernetes CLI since K8s v1.14.

Finally, I think the OAM model offers one possible future. Take a look at projects like KubeVela and Crossplane. These allow you to compose your own custom abstraction layer. The developer creates a simple CRD called "Application" and this is translated into ths k8s or even off-cluster resources. Problem right now is the complexity is transferred onto guys configuring the platform..... I want to see more "out of the box" implementations.

Gotcha, thanks! We already run ArgoCD but having devs write raw manifests feels so low-level when it’s usually the same combo of configmaps, ingresses, services, deployments… Maybe this is more in the direction of what I’m looking for? 🤔 https://kubevela.io

Note: On that topic, I'm keeping a close eye on the Open Application Model and the kubevela projects. I think it’ll help write a representation of an application and its components that we can validate the structure of our code against, and generate documentation from it. Not a complete solution to the problem, but it'll help with certain parts of architecture documentation

Also, kubevela is getting ready to connect to clusterpedia https://github.com/kubevela/kubevela/issues/4237,

https://kubevela.io/ is an alternative that has been around longer, exposes CUE naturally, and builds on open standards for app packs. I'd recommend this open-source product.