Why helm doesn't use a general purpose programming language for defining resources?

1. helm

   1 243 27,323 9.5 Go

   The Kubernetes Package Manager

   

   I asked myself the same question, a few years ago, (BTW Great post from Matt!) Helm has been discussing the possibility to plugin other templating languages other than text/template for quite some time eg. #6184 So far, nobody did a serious move to provide an implementation.

2. SaaSHub

   www.saashub.com featured

   SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews. SaaSHub helps you find the best software and product alternatives

   

3. Pulumi

   2 192 22,266 9.9 Go

   Pulumi - Infrastructure as Code in any programming language 🚀

   

   Have you tried Pulumi ?

4. carvel

   3 10 379 8.5 HTML

   Carvel provides a set of reliable, single-purpose, composable tools that aid in your application building, configuration, and deployment to Kubernetes. This repo contains information regarding the Carvel open-source community.

   

   +1 been using ytt and kapp, the Carvel stuff in its entirety is a much better experience than helm (it can keep helm to help migration, or deal with the fact everyone still distributes in helm).

5. cue

   4 119 5,235 9.9 Go

   The home of the CUE language! Validate and define text-based and dynamic configuration

   

   This is where cue fits nicely in my opinion. https://cuelang.org/

6. dhall-kubernetes

   5 11 625 2.8 Dhall

   Typecheck, template and modularize your Kubernetes definitions with Dhall

   

   Not Helm directly, but does something like Dhall fit your question? https://github.com/dhall-lang/dhall-kubernetes

7. helm-x

   6 4 174 0.0 Go

   Treat any Kustomization or K8s manifests directory as a Helm chart

   We are already very close to that IMHO. The functionality is not yet built in Helm. If you look at CDK8s + Helm X you can already do it for your team. The only limitation is that you can't publish that as a chart.

8. design-proposals-archive

   7 5 154 2.9 Makefile

   Discontinued Archive of Kubernetes Design Proposals

   

   I will point out that the shortcomings of parameterized templates are actually very well-understood by the Kubernetes community: see Declarative application management in Kubernetes and The Rationale behind kpt. Helm has significant mindshare because it was first to the scene / has network effects, it solves real problems, and presents a decent UX for chart users. It sits in this obnoxious local optimum of "good enough on Day 1, hot garbage nightmare on Day 100".

9. vscode-ytt

   8 1 17 10.0

   Visual Studio Code extension for working with ytt yaml files

   

   They do have an IDE integration, but it's mostly for syntax highlighting than any sort of programming assistance. ytt syntax highlighting for Visual Studio Code

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