Using modules/profiles and a single Helm chart

[seagullmouse]

Our setup

• We have a single Helm chart which contains >10 images.
• We want to use Helm to deploy as we tap into various Helm hooks to set up our apps.
• Helm is our unit of deployment across all environments

What we currently do

• In local development we use profiles to decide which parts of the Helm chart to deploy.
• E.g skaffold dev -p core,extra1,extra2
• Each profile patches a boolean which is then used to decide whether to render a service in the Helm/templates.
• E.g.

    patches:
      - op: replace
        path: /deploy/helm/releases/0/setValues/enableExtra1
        value: true

• Then in the templates we have {{- if .Values.enableExtra1 }}

The issue

• This setup still requires us to build all of the images that might be in a Helm chart, and then later we decide whether to include them or not. This is pretty slow for a big Helm chart.
• We want to have skaffold selectively build the images based on what will end up in the Helm chart.
• The deploy step defines setValueTemplates to override the image tags of all of the images.

What I've tried

• Skaffold modules, our deploy step using setValueTemplates to override image tags. I can't see how this can work with a module defined separate to the Helm deploy.
• Skaffold profiles, again, couldn't get this to work.

What am I missing? Thanks in advance