Template Helpers

The standard chart exposes a set of named Helm template helpers (defined in templates/_helpers.tpl) that application charts built on top of standard can call directly. These helpers centralise naming and labelling logic so every chart in the repository behaves consistently.

Naming helpers

standard.chartName

Returns the chart name. Falls back to $.Chart.Name unless chartName is set in values.

chartName: myapp    # overrides Chart.name

standard.chartVersion

Returns the chart version. Falls back to $.Chart.Version unless chartVersion is set in values.

standard.chart

Returns <chartName>-<chartVersion> truncated to 63 characters, with + replaced by _. Used as the value for the helm.sh/chart label.

standard.version

Returns the application version. Resolves in order: values.version → Chart.AppVersion.

version: "1.2.3"    # overrides Chart.AppVersion

standard.release

Returns the Helm release name. Can be decoupled from the Kubernetes resource names by setting releaseName:

releaseName: myapp    # resource names use "myapp" regardless of the Helm release name

standard.name

Returns the application name used for the app.kubernetes.io/name label. Resolves in order:

Condition	Result
nameOverride set	nameOverride (truncated to 63 chars)
chart name is standard	release name
otherwise	chart name

The fallback to release name when the chart is the generic standard wrapper prevents the meaningless value standard from appearing in labels.

standard.fullname

Returns the fully qualified application name used as the base for resource names. Resolves in order:

Condition	Result
fullnameOverride set	exactly fullnameOverride
nameOverride set and release contains it	just <release>
nameOverride set	<release>-<nameOverride>
chart name is standard	just <release>
release already contains the chart name	just <release>
otherwise	<release>-<chartName>

See Resource Naming for the full decision table with examples.

standard.resourcename

Returns the name portion of a specific resource (e.g. a deployment key). Uses object.nameOverride if set, otherwise object.name. Expects a context with an object key.

standard.resourcefullname

Returns the fully qualified name of a specific resource. Resolves in order:

Condition	Result
object.fullnameOverride set	exactly fullnameOverride
prefix set in context	<fullname>-<prefix>-<resourcename>
fullname already contains resourcename	just <fullname> (deduplication)
otherwise	<fullname>-<resourcename>

The prefix is used internally for CronJobs (cronjob) and Jobs (job) so their names never collide with Deployments sharing the same key.

Label helpers

standard.labels

Renders the full set of recommended Kubernetes labels applied to every resource:

helm.sh/chart: <chart>-<version>
app.kubernetes.io/name: <name>
app.kubernetes.io/instance: <release>
app.kubernetes.io/version: "<version>"
app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: Helm

standard.selectorLabels

Renders only the labels used in selector.matchLabels. These are immutable after first deploy:

app.kubernetes.io/name: <name>
app.kubernetes.io/instance: <release>
app.kubernetes.io/deployment: <deployment-key>   # only when a deployment context is present

The deployment label is injected for multi-deployment charts so that each Deployment's selector is unique within the release.

Miscellaneous helpers

standard.serviceAccountName

Returns the service account name to use for pods:

Condition	Result
serviceAccount.create: true	serviceAccount.name if set, otherwise fullname
serviceAccount.create: false	serviceAccount.name if set, otherwise default

standard.image

Constructs the full container image reference from image.registry, image.repository, image.name, and the resolved tag. The tag is coerced to a string so numeric values (e.g. a plain git SHA like 70695922) render as quoted YAML and not as integers, which would break image pulls.

Tag resolution order: image.tag → values.version → Chart.AppVersion.

image:
  registry: ""              # e.g. "registry.example.com/"
  repository: myorg/
  name: myapp
  tag: ""                   # falls back to version / appVersion

Result: myorg/myapp:1.2.3

Calling helpers from application charts

Application charts that depend on standard can call any of these helpers directly by their fully qualified name:

# charts/myapp/templates/deployment.yaml
metadata:
  name: {{ include "standard.fullname" . }}
  labels:
    {{- include "standard.labels" . | nindent 4 }}

Because the helpers resolve values from $.Values and $.Chart, they work correctly whether called from within the standard chart or from a dependent chart that passes its own context.