nebius/helmrelease-trigger-operator

nebius/helmrelease-trigger-operator

Description: A Kubernetes controller that automatically triggers FluxCD HelmRelease reconciliation when associated ConfigMaps are updated, enabling seamless configuration-driven GitOps workflows.

Language: Go

License: Apache-2.0

Stars: 6

Forks: 0

Open issues: 10

Created: 2025-07-04T10:54:13Z

Pushed: 2025-12-16T00:49:33Z

Default branch: main

Fork: no

Archived: no

README:

HelmRelease Trigger Operator

A Kubernetes controller that automatically triggers HelmRelease reconciliation when associated ConfigMaps are updated, enabling seamless configuration-driven GitOps workflows.

Disclaimer

Important: This project is not affiliated with FluxCD or ControlPlaneIO-FluxCD. It is an independent operator designed to simplify deployments with FluxCD, specifically when using the valuesFrom feature in HelmRelease configurations. The HelmRelease Trigger Operator provides additional functionality for triggering HelmRelease reconciliations based on ConfigMap updates, but it is not officially supported or endorsed by the FluxCD project or its maintainers.

Overview

The HelmRelease Trigger Operator monitors ConfigMaps with specific labels and annotations, automatically triggering FluxCD HelmRelease reconciliation when configuration changes are detected. This enables dynamic configuration management where ConfigMap updates can immediately trigger application redeployments without manual intervention.

How It Works

The operator watches for ConfigMaps labeled with nebius.ai/helmrelease-trigger-operator: "true" and:

1. Monitors ConfigMap Changes: Detects create, update, and generic events on labeled ConfigMaps 2. Extracts HelmRelease References: Uses annotations to identify the target HelmRelease 3. Compares Digests: Checks if the HelmRelease digest has changed since last reconciliation 4. Triggers Reconciliation: Patches the HelmRelease with force reconciliation annotations when changes are detected 5. Autodiscovery: Dynamically identifies HelmReleases with matching labels and annotations to include them in the reconciliation process

Features

• Automatic Triggering: No manual intervention required for configuration-driven deployments
• Autodiscovery: Dynamically detects and includes HelmReleases based on labels and annotations
• Digest-based Change Detection: Prevents unnecessary reconciliations by comparing digests
• FluxCD Integration: Seamlessly works with existing FluxCD HelmRelease resources
• Namespace Flexibility: Supports cross-namespace ConfigMap to HelmRelease references
• Configurable Concurrency: Adjustable reconciliation performance settings

Autodiscovery

The HelmRelease Trigger Operator implements autodiscovery by scanning all HelmReleases in the cluster and automatically labeling those that use the valuesFrom feature. This ensures that HelmReleases relying on external ConfigMaps or Secrets for their values are dynamically included in the operator's reconciliation workflow.

How Autodiscovery Works:

1. HelmRelease Scanning: The operator scans all HelmReleases in the cluster. 2. `valuesFrom` Detection: It checks if the HelmRelease configuration includes the valuesFrom field, which indicates dependency on external resources like ConfigMaps or Secrets. 3. Automatic Labeling: For HelmReleases using valuesFrom, the operator adds the following labels:

• "nebius.ai/helmrelease-trigger-operator": "true": Marks the HelmRelease as managed by the operator.
• "nebius.ai/helmreleases-namespace": "": Specifies the namespace of the HelmRelease.
• "nebius.ai/helmreleases-name": "": Specifies the name of the HelmRelease.

4. Continuous Monitoring: The operator continuously monitors the cluster for changes to HelmReleases and updates labels dynamically as needed.

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes cluster (version 1.19+)
• FluxCD v2 with Helm Controller installed
• kubectl CLI tool
• Appropriate RBAC permissions

Installation

Using Helm (Recommended)

Install the HelmRelease Trigger Operator using the Helm chart from Nebius Container Registry:

# Add the Nebius Helm repository (OCI-based)
helm install helmrelease-trigger-operator \
oci://cr.eu-north1.nebius.cloud/soperator/helm-helmrelease-trigger-operator \
--version \
--namespace helmrelease-trigger-operator-system \
--create-namespace

To install the latest version:

helm install helmrelease-trigger-operator \
oci://cr.eu-north1.nebius.cloud/soperator/helm-helmrelease-trigger-operator \
--namespace helmrelease-trigger-operator-system \
--create-namespace

Custom Values

You can customize the installation by providing your own values:

# Create values file
cat values.yaml
controllerManager:
manager:
args:
- --metrics-bind-address=:8443
- --leader-elect
- --health-probe-bind-address=:8081
- --enable-hr-autodiscovery=true
- --log-format=json
- --log-level=debug
resources:
limits:
memory: 256Mi
requests:
cpu: 200m
memory: 128Mi
replicas: 2
EOF

# Install with custom values
helm install helmrelease-trigger-operator \
oci://cr.eu-north1.nebius.cloud/soperator/helm-helmrelease-trigger-operator \
--values values.yaml \
--namespace helmrelease-trigger-operator-system \
--create-namespace

Using kubectl

kustomize build config/default | kubectl apply -f -

### Verify Installation

Check if the operator pod is running

kubectl get pods -n helmrelease-trigger-operator-system

View operator logs

kubectl logs -n helmrelease-trigger-operator-system deployment/helmrelease-trigger-operator-controller-manager

Check the Helm release status

helm list -n helmrelease-trigger-operator-system

### Upgrade

To upgrade to a newer version:

Upgrade to specific version

helm upgrade helmrelease-trigger-operator \ oci://cr.eu-north1.nebius.cloud/soperator/helm-helmrelease-trigger-operator \ --version \ --namespace helmrelease-trigger-operator-system

Upgrade to latest version

helm upgrade helmrelease-trigger-operator \ oci://cr.eu-north1.nebius.cloud/soperator/helm-helmrelease-trigger-operator \ --namespace helmrelease-trigger-operator-system

### Uninstall

Uninstall the Helm release

helm uninstall helmrelease-trigger-operator \ --namespace helmrelease-trigger-operator-system

Optionally, delete the namespace

kubectl delete namespace helmrelease-trigger-operator-system

## Configuration

### Required ConfigMap…