Getting Started

What is the Helm lexicon?

The Helm lexicon extends chant to produce real, parameterized Helm charts from typed TypeScript. Unlike static manifest generators (like cdk8s’s Helm output), the Helm lexicon generates:

• {{ .Values.x }} template directives
• values.yaml with typed defaults
• values.schema.json for validation
• Conditional resources via {{- if }}
• Standard _helpers.tpl
• Helm hooks and tests

Install

npm install --save-dev @intentius/chant @intentius/chant-lexicon-helm @intentius/chant-lexicon-k8s

Your first chart

chant init --lexicon helm

This creates a scaffold with a Chart, Values, Deployment, and Service. Run chant build to produce a complete Helm chart directory.

Key imports

// Resources
import { Chart, Values, HelmNotes } from "@intentius/chant-lexicon-helm";

// Intrinsics (produce Go template expressions)
import { values, Release, include, printf, toYaml, If } from "@intentius/chant-lexicon-helm";

// K8s resources
import { Deployment, Service, Ingress } from "@intentius/chant-lexicon-k8s";