values.yaml

The package’s default configuration, sitting beside hull.yaml at the package root. Its contents are an arbitrary YAML map that your templates read via ${values.<path>}. Hull imposes no fixed schema — you define whatever shape suits the application — but it does define how values merge and reserves one key, tags, for layer selection.

Minimal example 

name: my-app
replicaCount: 1
image:
  repository: nginx
  tag: latest
service:
  port: 80

A template then references these as ${values.image.repository}, ${values.service.port}, and so on. hull create generates this file.

Fields

values.yaml has no required keys and no fixed field set. Define keys freely to match your templates. The table below covers only the keys hull itself gives meaning to; every other key is passed through untouched.

Field Type Required Default Description
tags map of string→bool no {} Reserved. Each tags.<name> toggles the layers in hull.yaml that list <name> under their tags:. A truthy value enables those layers.
(any other key) any no — Application configuration. Read in templates via ${values.<path>} and usable in a layer’s condition (a dotted path such as cache.enabled).

Merge order

At render time hull computes the effective values by deep-merging these sources, later winning (maps merge recursively; scalars and lists replace):

  1. Each enabled layer’s values.yaml, in layer order.
  2. This package’s values.yaml.
  3. The active profile’s values (--profile, if any).
  4. The selected environment’s valueFiles then inline values (--env).
  5. -f / --values <file> arguments, in CLI order.
  6. --set arguments.
  7. --set-string arguments (forces string typing).
  8. --set-file arguments (file contents become the value).
  9. --set-json arguments.

Set a key to null (YAML ~) to null it out from a lower-precedence source. The effective values are validated against values.schema.json if that file is present.

–set path syntax

--set, --set-string, --set-file, and --set-json share the same path grammar:

Path expression Meaning
replicaCount=3 Set a top-level key.
image.tag=1.4.2 Set a nested key; intermediate maps are created.
args[0]=--debug Set an array index; the array is created if absent.
label\.io/name=api Backslash-escape a literal . inside a key.

Use --set-string image.tag=2.0 when a numeric-looking value must stay a string.

Full example

values.yaml:

# Application defaults. Templates read these as ${values.<path>}.
name: platform-api
replicaCount: 2

image:
  repository: registry.example.com/platform-api
  tag: "1.4.2"

service:
  type: ClusterIP
  port: 8080

resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 100m
    memory: 128Mi

# Feature flag also usable as a layer `condition: cache.enabled`.
cache:
  enabled: false

# Reserved: toggles hull.yaml layers that declare `tags: [observability]`.
tags:
  observability: false

A templates/deployment.yaml reading these values:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: "${values.name}"
spec:
  replicas: ${values.replicaCount}
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: app
          image: "${values.image.repository}:${values.image.tag}"

Rendering with --set replicaCount=5 --set cache.enabled=true produces a Deployment with replicas: 5 and, because cache.enabled is now truthy, activates any layer whose condition is cache.enabled.

See also