Packaging API: Need an effective way to customize the helmTemplate name and namespace options

[voor]

Describe the problem/challenge you have We use AppCR currently and install packages from a privileged namespace (one that has more permissive roles) into another namespace(s) as a typical practice.

In particular, it's very common for us to have the following in our App CR:

spec:
  fetch:
  - imgpkgBundle:
      image: registry.example.com/imgpkg/charts/external-dns:5.4.8
  template:
  - helmTemplate:
      name: external-dns # THIS
      namespace: external-dns # THIS
      path: chart/
      valuesFrom:
        - secretRef:
            name: external-dns-values
  - ytt:
      ignoreUnknownComments: true
      inline:
        pathsFrom:
        - secretRef:
            name: external-dns-values
      paths:
      - '-'
      #! This was a really great idea to just use the same values file from helm and ytt.
      - chart/values.yaml
      - config/
  - kbld:
      paths:
      - '-'
      - .imgpkg/images.yml
  deploy:
  - kapp:
      rawOptions:
      - --wait-timeout=5m
      - --diff-changes=true

Of note is the helm template including steps explicitly for name and namespace.

We are currently able to translate this to a Package that looks like this:

  template:
    spec:
      fetch:
        - imgpkgBundle:
            image: #@ data.values.bundle.image
      template:
      - helmTemplate:
          name: external-dns # THIS
          namespace: external-dns # THIS
          path: chart/
      - ytt:
          ignoreUnknownComments: true
          paths:
          - '-'
          #! This was a really great idea to just use the same values file from helm and ytt.
          - chart/values.yaml
          - config/
      - kbld:
          paths:
          - '-'
          - .imgpkg/images.yml
      deploy:
      - kapp:
          rawOptions:
          - --wait-timeout=5m
          - --diff-changes=true

And fit the values in properly with a PackageInstall that looks like this:

apiVersion: packaging.carvel.dev/v1alpha1
kind: PackageInstall
metadata:
  name: external-dns
  namespace: tap-install
  annotations:
    ext.packaging.carvel.dev/ytt-paths-from-secret-name.0: external-dns-something
spec:
  serviceAccountName: "tap-install-sa"
  packageRef:
    refName: external-dns.mycompany.com
    versionSelection:
      constraints: ">=0.0.0"
      prereleases:
        identifiers: [beta]
  values:
  - secretRef:
      name: external-dns-something

Note the inclusion of both the values and annotation of external-dns-something -- we're fine with this, it works, it's not great, but we have a way forward that's a workaround.

We do not have a workaround for the parts marked # THIS -- the name and namespace that is passed into helm template. There is currently nothing in the Packaging API that would allow us to override this.

For singletons, like metrics-server, or Harbor, or something that generally has "one of" we are not blocked, because the Package we make can hard-code this. However, for things that we like to deploy a lot of (databases, messaging, caching, etc.) we are stuck.

Describe the solution you'd like Something that can let us change those values, even if it's temporarily:

kind: PackageInstall
metadata:
  name: external-dns
  namespace: tap-install
  annotations:
    ext.packaging.carvel.dev/helmTemplate-name: bob
    ext.packaging.carvel.dev/helmTemplate-namespace: alice

While you come up with a better UX and long-term fix.

Anything else you would like to add: We are happy with something short-term that unblocks us and eager to see a longer term plan around this level of customization.

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[cppforlife]

Something that can let us change those values, even if it's temporarily:

i'm game for short term solution descirbed above => adding 2 annotations (i tweaked names a little bit):

ext.packaging.carvel.dev/helm-template-name: bob
ext.packaging.carvel.dev/helm-template-namespace: alice