go-helm-template

Simple, fast and easy to use Go library to run helm template without the need of a Helm binary nor its execution as an external command.

Features

• Simple
• Fast
• Compatible with go fs.FS (Template charts from FS, embedded, memory...)
• Testable.
• No Helm binary required.
• No external command execution from Go.
• Template specific files option.

Getting started

package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "testing/fstest"

    "github.com/slok/go-helm-template/helm"
)

// Chart data in memory.
const (
    chart = `
apiVersion: v2
name: example-memory
version: 0.1.0
`
    configmap = `
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: {{ printf "%s-%s" .Chart.Name .Release.Name | trunc 63 | trimSuffix "-" }}
  namespace: {{ .Release.Namespace }}
  labels:
    {{- with .Values.labels -}}
    {{ toYaml . | nindent 4 }}
    {{- end }}
data:
  something: something
`
)

func main() {
    ctx := context.Background()

    // Create chart in memory.
    chartFS := make(fstest.MapFS)
    chartFS["Chart.yaml"] = &fstest.MapFile{Data: []byte(chart)}
    chartFS["templates/configmap.yaml"] = &fstest.MapFile{Data: []byte(configmap)}

    // Load chart.
    chart, err := helm.LoadChart(ctx, chartFS)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    // Execute helm template.
    result, err := helm.Template(ctx, helm.TemplateConfig{
        Chart:       chart,
        ReleaseName: "test",
        Namespace:   "no-kube-system",
        Values: map[string]interface{}{
            "labels": map[string]string{
                "example-from": "go-helm-template",
            },
        },
    })
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    fmt.Println(result)
}

Examples

• Chart unit test: An example that shows how to use the library for chart unit testing.
• Custom: An example that templates a chart with custom options (e.g CRDs).
• Embed: An example that renders charts embedded in the binary using embed.FS.
• Memory: An example that templates a chart from memory.
• Simple: A simple way of templating a chart in the FS.

Tradeoffs

This library doesn't support anything apart from simple helm template. dependencies, hooks... and similar fancy features, are not supported.

Why

One of the Helm's most powerful feature (if not the most) is its template system, lots of users only use Helm for this usage.

Not depending on helm as a system dependency, nor requiring to execute an external command, improves the portability and performance of applications that use Helm internally.

Some use cases

• Remove process execution for simple helm template calls.
• Control better the execution flow of rendering multiple charts.
• Embed charts in compiled binaries with embed.FS.
• Increase Helm template speed.
• Chart unit testing.