✨ Allow helm plugin to use custom prefixes #5119

liam-mackie · 2025-10-07T05:43:40Z

Background:
When working with long names, you will often need to use a shortened (or abbreviated) version of the controller name as the namePrefix in the kustomization.yaml file. This means a shorter name can be used as the prefix to all the files.

When using the v2alpha/helm plugin, this mostly works. The only resource that doesn't use the name generated by Kustomize is the ServiceMonitor. This is problematic, as it will use the name (with the custom prefix), then template the chart name (usually the long name) in front of it. This leads to a broken installation.

The fix:
This PR fixes this by attempting to get the namePrefix from the kustomization config path. If the namePrefix and the projectName are different, we do not template the file for the service monitor. This way, customisations are honoured, but existing behaviour is maintained.

k8s-ci-robot · 2025-10-07T05:43:46Z

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k8s-ci-robot · 2025-10-07T05:43:49Z

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k8s-ci-robot · 2025-10-07T05:43:49Z

Hi @liam-mackie. Thanks for your PR.

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liam-mackie · 2025-10-13T04:44:20Z

@Kavinjsir / @varshaprasad96 - is there any possibility of getting this one reviewed/approved to test? I'd love to get this in!

pkg/plugins/optional/helm/v2alpha/scaffolds/internal/kustomize/helm_templater_test.go

camilamacedo86 · 2025-10-14T00:31:39Z

pkg/plugins/optional/helm/v2alpha/edit.go

 	fs.BoolVar(&p.force, "force", false, "if true, regenerates all the files")
 	fs.StringVar(&p.manifestsFile, "manifests", DefaultManifestsFile,
 		"path to the YAML file containing Kubernetes manifests from kustomize output")
+	fs.StringVar(&p.kustomizePath, "kustomize-path", DefaultKustomizeFile,


I do not think that we should pass the path here, otherwise we will need a flag for each file.
In this case, we might want to get the config from PROJECT file which has the project name instead of check the kustomize file wdyt?

Unfortunately, there's no reference to the entrypoint for Kustomize in the PROJECT file, and there's no way to infer the prefix someone uses in Kustomize outside of the kustomization.yaml itself. Kubebuilder conventions put it in config/default/kustomization.yaml. Originally, I left this as unconfigurable, and simply assumed that the kustomization.yaml would always be in this path.

The best we have to get this programatically is the Makefile, which uses it in the build-installer target:

$(KUSTOMIZE) build config/default > dist/install.yaml

The config/default path is what we'd use, and we'd simply look for a kustomization.yaml in there. I'm not sure if that's any better than simply allowing the desired kustomization file to be passed through though.

Happy to defer to your expertise here!

camilamacedo86 · 2025-10-14T00:33:41Z

...plugins/optional/helm/v2alpha/scaffolds/internal/templates/chart-templates/servicemonitor.go


 // ServiceMonitor scaffolds a ServiceMonitor for Prometheus monitoring in the Helm chart
 type ServiceMonitor struct {
 	machinery.TemplateMixin


The best solution would be to have the ServiceMonitor from the kustomize install.yaml
Could we look at this option?

When prometheus is enabled in kustomize, it'll use the ServiceMonitor from the kustomize install.yaml - this code path is only called when prometheus is disabled in kustomize.
I assume it's to allow prometheus to be enabled/disabled in the values.yaml of the helm chart.

Yes, that is the reason for we template this one.
But I think we can look for:

name: {{ .NamePrefix }}-controller-manager-metrics-monitor  serverName: {{ .NamePrefix }}-controller-manager-metrics-service  

Those values in the install.yaml and use here instead of use PROJECT name.

Example:

The serverName is the name of the service so we can look for: https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kubebuilder/blob/master/testdata/project-v4-with-plugins/dist/install.yaml#L922-L939

And use the prefix found above for the name

Ah ok, I think I understand - so take the actual values of the service name from the install.yaml rather than assuming it's the project name or prefix?

Thanks for the clarification - I'll get something up ASAP for you to take a look at 🙇

But then we need to remove the rest only get the data from the install.yaml
We should avoid adding flags since it will make it harder to keep things maintained

Could we keep the solution here only looking for the install.yaml to get this value?

Sorry, I meant that it's an option that we can consider, rather than an actual option that the user provides! It's not a new flag, and is the only way the data will be passed in to this template!

It will be a new flag for the plugin: fs.StringVar(&p.kustomizePath, "kustomize-path", DefaultKustomizeFile,
That means specific tests for it, and also if we pass one file, we might need to pass others, and it can grow, etc. Also, users will need to pass more than one value by default to properly generate it and bring a bad UX

So, the best approach is we get the values from the install.yaml
We should not consume any other place.

Oh, I see - you mean the kustomize path. I'll get something working and run it by you, I have an idea here.

Get data from kustomize output rather than kustomization.yaml changes the way we get the prefix to instead get it from the deployment name. Is this closer to what you were hoping for?

camilamacedo86

Thank you for your contribution 🥇
I tried to give the first round of reviews. I think we need to see if we could use the data from install.yaml and check for more generic options. Please, check my comments , let me know wdyt

feat: Allow helm templater plugin to get custom prefixes from kustomize

4df61fe

k8s-ci-robot requested review from Kavinjsir and varshaprasad96 October 7, 2025 05:43

k8s-ci-robot added the cncf-cla: yes Indicates the PR's author has signed the CNCF CLA. label Oct 7, 2025

k8s-ci-robot added size/M Denotes a PR that changes 30-99 lines, ignoring generated files. needs-ok-to-test Indicates a PR that requires an org member to verify it is safe to test. labels Oct 7, 2025

liam-mackie added 2 commits October 8, 2025 08:30

Add tests

5b12a7c

Make kustomize file configurable

6dd6a78

k8s-ci-robot added size/L Denotes a PR that changes 100-499 lines, ignoring generated files. and removed size/M Denotes a PR that changes 30-99 lines, ignoring generated files. labels Oct 7, 2025

liam-mackie added 2 commits October 8, 2025 10:13

Add NamePrefix to Service Monitor scaffold

dcb24ca

Standardise to NamePrefix

4d79f65

liam-mackie changed the title ~~feat: ✨ Allow helm plugin to use custom prefixes~~ ✨ Allow helm plugin to use custom prefixes Oct 13, 2025

camilamacedo86 reviewed Oct 14, 2025

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pkg/plugins/optional/helm/v2alpha/scaffolds/internal/kustomize/helm_templater_test.go Show resolved Hide resolved

camilamacedo86 reviewed Oct 14, 2025

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camilamacedo86 requested changes Oct 14, 2025

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liam-mackie added 3 commits October 14, 2025 11:19

Linting fixes

44e16fe

Add service name from kustomize

d2a79c6

Get data from kustomize output rather than kustomization.yaml

182aa72

✨ Allow helm plugin to use custom prefixes #5119

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✨ Allow helm plugin to use custom prefixes #5119

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camilamacedo86 Oct 14, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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