helmless

README

Cloudzero Helmless

Helmless is a tool that compares configured values against default values from a Helm chart, producing a minimal YAML file containing only the differences. This is useful for understanding what values have been customized in a Helm deployment of the CloudZero Agent for Kubernetes.

Usage

helmless [flags]

Flags

• -c, --configured string - Path to the configured values YAML file (default "configured-values.yaml")
• -d, --defaults string - Path to the default values YAML file (uses embedded defaults if not provided)
• -o, --output string - Path to write the output YAML file (default "-" for stdout)

Example Workflows

Simplified Workflow (Using Embedded Defaults)

The tool now includes embedded default values from the Helm chart, so you can use it without manually extracting defaults:

1. Extract the current values from a deployed Helm release:

   kubectl -n cza get cm/cz-agent-helmless-cm -o jsonpath='{.data.values\.yaml}' > configured-values.yaml
   

2. Compare the values and generate a minimal overrides file:

   cloudzero-helmless \
       --configured configured-values.yaml \
       --output overrides.yaml
   

Traditional Workflow (Explicit Defaults)

If you need to use a different version of defaults or want explicit control:

1. Extract the current values from a deployed Helm release:

   kubectl -n cza get cm/cz-agent-helmless-cm -o jsonpath='{.data.values\.yaml}' > configured-values.yaml
   

2. Get the default values from the Helm chart:

   helm show values ./helm > default-values.yaml
   

3. Compare the values and generate a minimal overrides file:

   cloudzero-helmless \
       --configured configured-values.yaml \
       --defaults default-values.yaml \
       --output overrides.yaml
   

The resulting overrides.yaml will contain only the values that differ from the defaults, making it easy to understand what has been customized.

Getting Logs

When the helmless job runs as part of a Helm deployment, you can view its logs without needing to know the chart name by using the job's component label:

kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/component=helmless -n <namespace> --tail=100

Build System Integration

The embedded defaults are automatically generated during the build process by running helm show values ./helm and embedding the result into the binary. This ensures that the embedded defaults always match the current version of the Helm chart.

Limitations

The kubeStateMetrics object is excluded from the comparison due to limitations in the helm show values output

Documentation

Overview

Package main implements a tool for comparing configured values against default values from a Helm chart. It produces a minimal YAML file containing only the differences, which is useful for understanding what values have been customized in a Helm deployment of the CloudZero Agent for Kubernetes.