helmfmt

helmfmt is a small CLI to auto-align indentation in Helm templates. It walks chart templates recursively and normalizes indentation for control blocks, variables, and simple functions, while respecting comments.

It can be configured for Zed IDE/VS Code/VIM, and as a pre-commit hook.

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What gets formatted

Only lines starting with Go-template tags. YAML indentation is untouched.

These Go-template tags are indented:

• Control blocks: range, with, define, block
• Branching: if, else, else if, end
• Vars: {{ $var := ... }}
• Some functions: fail, printf etc.
• Comments: {{/* ... */}}

These are not indented by default but can be configured:

• tpl, template, include and toYaml because they can break YAML indentation

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Example

Before

{{- if .Values.createNamespace }}
{{- range .Values.namespaces }}
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: {{ . }}
{{- with $.Values.namespaceLabels }}
  labels:
{{ toYaml . | indent 4 }}
{{- end }}
---
{{- end }}
{{- end }}

After

{{- if .Values.createNamespace }}
  {{- range .Values.namespaces }}
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: {{ . }}
    {{- with $.Values.namespaceLabels }}
  labels:
{{ toYaml . | indent 4 }}
    {{- end }}
---
  {{- end }}
{{- end }}

Installation

First method

go install github.com/digitalstudium/helmfmt@latest

Then you should add $HOME/go/bin/ to PATH if not already done:

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/go/bin' >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc

Second method

git clone https://github.com/digitalstudium/helmfmt
cd helmfmt
go build

If you compiled it via go build then you can run it with:

./helmfmt <chart-path>

or add it to PATH via:

sudo install ./helmfmt /usr/local/bin/

Third method

Download it from releases

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Usage

helmfmt <chart-path>
helmfmt --files <file1> <file2> ...
helmfmt --files <file1> <file2> ... --stdout
helmfmt --enable-indent=toYaml,include --files <file1> <file2> ...

Example run:

helmfmt ./mychart
[UPDATED] mychart/templates/deployment.yaml
Processed: 3, Updated: 1, Errors: 0

or

helmfmt --files ./mychart/templates/deployment.yaml ./mychart/templates/svc.yaml
[UPDATED] mychart/templates/deployment.yaml
Processed: 2, Updated: 1, Errors: 0

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Configuration

helmfmt can be configured using a .helmfmt file in JSON format. The tool looks for configuration files in this order:

1. ~/.helmfmt (home directory)
2. ./.helmfmt (project directory, overrides home directory configuration)

Default Configuration

{
  "indent_size": 2,
  "extensions": [".yaml", ".yml", ".tpl"],
  "rules": {
    "indent": {
      "tpl": {
        "disabled": true,
        "exclude": []
      },
      "toYaml": {
        "disabled": true,
        "exclude": []
      },
      "template": {
        "disabled": true,
        "exclude": []
      },
      "include": {
        "disabled": true,
        "exclude": []
      },
      "printf": {
        "disabled": false,
        "exclude": []
      },
      "fail": {
        "disabled": false,
        "exclude": []
      }
    }
  }
}

Rule Configuration

Each rule can be configured with:

• disabled: Set to true to disable the rule entirely
• exclude: Array of file patterns to exclude from this rule

Example Configurations

Enable tpl and toYaml indentation:

{
  "rules": {
    "indent": {
      "tpl": {
        "disabled": false
      },
      "toYaml": {
        "disabled": false
      }
    }
  }
}

Exclude test files from include indentation:

{
  "rules": {
    "indent": {
      "include": {
        "disabled": false,
        "exclude": ["tests/*", "**/test-*.yaml"]
      }
    }
  }
}

Use 4 spaces for indentation:

{
  "indent_size": 4
}

Command-line Rule Overrides

You can override configuration rules using command-line flags:

# Enable specific rules (overrides config file)
helmfmt --enable-indent=tpl,toYaml <chart-path>

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pre-commit hook configuration

To use helmfmt as a pre-commit hook, add the following to your .pre-commit-config.yaml:

repos:
  - repo: https://github.com/digitalstudium/helmfmt
    rev: v0.4.2
    hooks:
      - id: helmfmt

Zed IDE configuration

Add these lines to your settings.json:

  "languages": {
    "Helm": {
      "formatter": {
        "external": {
          "command": "helmfmt",
        }
      }
    }
  }

In addition, you should install:

• helm language extension https://github.com/cabrinha/helm.zed
• and helm language server https://github.com/mrjosh/helm-ls

VSCode IDE configuration

Add these lines to your settings:

  "advancedLocalFormatters.formatters": [
    {
      "command": ["helmfmt"],
      "languages": ["helm"]
    }
  ],
  "[helm]": {
    "editor.defaultFormatter": "webfreak.advanced-local-formatters"
  }

In addition these extensions should be installed:

• https://github.com/WebFreak001/vscode-advanced-local-formatters
• https://github.com/vscode-kubernetes-tools/vscode-kubernetes-tools

VIM configuration

Without plugin

Add to your .vimrc:

autocmd BufRead,BufNewFile */templates/*.yaml,*/templates/*.yml set filetype=helm
autocmd FileType helm nnoremap <buffer> <leader>f :%!helmfmt<CR>

Press \f in any Helm template to format it.

With towolf/vim-helm plugin

If you installed the towolf/vim-helm plugin for enhanced syntax highlighting, the filetype is set automatically. Just add:

autocmd FileType helm nnoremap <buffer> <leader>f :%!helmfmt<CR>

In both cases, ensure helmfmt is in your $PATH.

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Roadmap

• More Helm funcs (dict, etc.)
• Format spaces inside tags

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Issues and PRs welcome!