helmgen 0.1.0

Auto-generate Helm charts from Docker Compose files

Helmgen

Auto-generate Helm charts from Docker Compose files.

HelmGen is a Python CLI tool that automatically converts your docker-compose.yml into a fully structured Helm chart — including Deployments, Services, PVCs, Ingress, and Secrets (internal or ExternalSecrets).

Features:

• Convert Docker Compose files directly into Helm charts
• Auto-detect databases → generate StatefulSets + PVCs
• Auto-generate Kubernetes Secrets or ExternalSecrets
• Support for Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, or ExternalSecrets Operator
• Generate SecretStore or ClusterSecretStore automatically
• Auto-generate Ingress resources for web services
• Replace hardcoded secrets with safe placeholders in values.yaml
• Detect whether secrets should be env vars or mounted files
• CLI support for flexible options and overrides

Installation

From source (recommended for development)

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/helmgen.git
cd helmgen
pip install -e . 

• Then you can run it as a command:

helmgen --help

Usage

helmgen docker-compose.yml [options]

Example

helmgen docker-compose.yml \
  --output ./charts/myapp \
  --secret-provider externalsecret \
  --store-scope cluster \
  --reuse-store global-vault-store

• This generates

charts/myapp/
├── Chart.yaml
├── values.yaml
└── templates/
    ├── deployment.yaml
    ├── service.yaml
    ├── pvc.yaml
    ├── ingress.yaml
    ├── secrets.yaml
    ├── externalsecret.yaml
    └── secretstore.yaml

• Then you can deploy

helm install myapp ./charts/myapp

CLI options

Option	Description	Default
--output, -o	Directory for generated Helm chart	./generated-chart
--secret-provider, -s	internal (Helm Secret) or externalsecret	internal
--store-scope	namespace or cluster SecretStore	namespace
--reuse-store	Name of existing SecretStore/ClusterSecretStore	None

Example

version: "3.8"
services:
  web:
    image: nginx:alpine
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    environment:
      APP_ENV: production
      SECRET_KEY: supersecret

  db:
    image: postgres:14
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: user
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: pass123
    volumes:
      - db-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"

volumes:
  db-data:

• This will generate a Helm Chart with

  • StatefulSet for Postgres
  • Deployment for web
  • Secrets/ExternalSecrets for passwords
  • PVC for db-data
  • Ingress if ports are exposed

• In this example the sensitive data is hard coded in the compose file with is a very bad practice but it's being used only for purpose of the example demonstration

Secret management

• There are 2 options
  1. Internal (default helm secret)
  2. External

if you want to run it as a python script (not recommended)

python3 generator.py docker-compose.yml \
  --output ./charts/myapp \
  --secret-provider externalsecret \
  --store-scope cluster \
  --reuse-store global-vault-store

This will create a complete Helm chart with:

charts/myapp/
├── Chart.yaml
├── values.yaml
└── templates/
    ├── deployment.yaml
    ├── service.yaml
    ├── pvc.yaml
    ├── ingress.yaml
    ├── secrets.yaml
    ├── externalsecret.yaml
    └── secretstore.yaml

Templates

helm_templates/
├── deployment.yaml
├── service.yaml
├── pvc.yaml
├── ingress.yaml
├── secrets.yaml
├── externalsecret.yaml
└── secretstore.yaml

Summary

Files and templates directory:

• generator.py → generates chart structure and populates values.yaml.

• helm_templates/ → reusable Jinja-style templates compatible with Helm.

• Seamless handling of:

  • Secrets and ExternalSecrets
  • Databases as StatefulSets (via PVC)
  • Ingress auto-detection
  • ClusterSecretStore / SecretStore support

Run this version

• Generate files and templates from compose file:

python3 generator.py docker-compose.yml --output ./charts/myapp --secret-provider externalsecret

• Then install chart:

helm install myapp ./charts/myapp

Dependencies

Package	Purpose
PyYAML	Primary YAML parser for reading docker-compose.yml.
ruamel.yaml	More advanced YAML manipulation (preserves comments, ordering).
jinja2	Template rendering for Helm YAML files (used when writing templates/).
click	Optional CLI framework (if you upgrade from argparse later for nicer commands).
rich	Optional but recommended — adds colored console output, status spinners, and better error formatting.

Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

Update to run it as a CLI tool

• Usage

helmgen docker-compose.yml --output ./charts/myapp

How it works

• project.scripts exposes a command called helmgen
• That command runs the main() function inside your generator.py
• Everything else is metadata (version, author, URLs, etc.)
• Dependencies match the ones from your requirements.txt

Project layout

helmgen/
├── generator.py
├── pyproject.toml
├── README.md
├── requirements.txt
└── helm_templates/
    ├── deployment.yaml
    ├── service.yaml
    ├── pvc.yaml
    ├── ingress.yaml
    ├── secrets.yaml
    ├── externalsecret.yaml
    └── secretstore.yaml

Install locally for development

• From the folder containing pyproject.toml:

pip install -e .

Then you can run it directly:

helmgen docker-compose.yml --output ./charts/myapp

Build a distributable package

• to share it or publish it to PyPI (optional):

python -m build

• and it generates

dist/
├── helmgen-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl
└── helmgen-0.1.0.tar.gz