Specifying Helm Values

DevSpace allows you to pass values to your Helm charts either inline within devspace.yaml or using external yaml files.

Inline Values

To specify the values for a Helm deployment directly within devspace.yaml, use the values field and define the values according to the values specification of the Helm chart that you are deploying.

devspace.yaml

version: v2beta1
deployments:
  api:
    helm:
      chart:
        name: component-chart
        repo: https://charts.devspace.sh
      values:
        containers:
          - image: ghcr.io/loft-sh/devspace-example-api
        service:
          ports:
            - port: 8080

Load Values From Files

DevSpace allows you to load Helm values from one or even multiple yaml files using the valuesFiles field.

devspace.yaml

version: v2beta1
deployments:
  api:
    helm:
      chart:
        name: component-chart
        repo: https://charts.devspace.sh
      values:
        service:
          port: ${SERVICE_PORT}
      valuesFiles:
      - chart/values_common.yaml
      - chart/values_dev.yaml

Precedence

The valuesFiles field is an ordered array, i.e. that yaml fields from the beginning of the array can be overwritten by values specified in other yaml files that are further down in the valuesFiles list.

Limitations

If you use the valuesFiles feature, it is important to understand that the values are loaded as static yaml values. That means that DevSpace features such as ${VARIABLES}, inline $(COMMANDS) and other templating options are not available.

To overcome such limitations, define inline values via the values fields for everything that needs these features (see example above). You can always combine values and valuesFiles.

Combine values + valuesFiles

Combine inline and file-based values DevSpace allows you to specify values (for inline values) and valuesFiles (for loading values from external yaml files) alongside each other.

Update Image Tags

If the updateImageTags (defaults to true) is set to true, DevSpace searches through the Helm values for this deployment (specified via values or valuesFiles) and tries to find any images in the Helm values that are also defined in the images section of the devspace.yaml. If DevSpace finds an image, it updates the image tag in the Helm values dynamically, so the tag in the Helm values matches the tag that DevSpace created during the most recent image building process for this image. Image tag updates make sure that your application will always be started with the most up-to-date image that DevSpace has built for you.

Example: Enable Tag Updates

deployments:
  database:
    updateImageTags: true
    helm:
      chart:
        name: bitnami/mysql

In-Memory Tag Replacement

Updating image tags takes place in-memory and DevSpace will not write anything to the filesystem, i.e. it will never change any of your configuration or Helm values files.