Helmfile silently ignores CRDs (and removes them on apply) if strategicMergePatches are used

[intelfx]

Trying to deploy ArgoCD using Helmfile:

(./argocd contains the argocd install.yaml)

releases:
  - name: argocd
    namespace: argocd
    chart: ./argocd

— works

releases:
  - name: argocd
    namespace: argocd
    chart: ./argocd
    strategicMergePatches:
      - apiVersion: apps/v1
        kind: Deployment
        metadata:
          namespace: argocd
          name: argocd-server
        spec:
          template:
            spec:
              containers:
              - name: argocd-server
                command:
                - argocd-server
                - --staticassets
                - /shared/app
                - --insecure

— doesn't work, deletes all existing CRDs on apply

[dippynark]

I am seeing the same thing when using transformers

[dippynark]

Did some investigation into this:

• If jsonPatches, strategicMergePatches or transformers are specified for a Helm release, then the release is preprocessed by chartify: https://github.com/helmfile/helmfile/blob/5837672bfaaa9b48d6132c2f534586652725ae64/pkg/state/helmx.go#L265-L305
• Chartify puts all CRDs into a crdsdirectory: https://github.com/helmfile/chartify/blob/6fbcd045d33e638ed6453b62bb2f044af5604e52/patch.go#L326-L342
• Helm template does not include the crds directory by default so CRDs are ignored even if they are in the templates directory of your original chart: [helm3][question] How to render CRDs with helm template? helm/helm#6930 (comment)

So to fix this you can add the following to your helmfile:

helmDefaults:
  # Ensure that helm template renders CRDs:
  # https://github.com/roboll/helmfile/issues/1924#issuecomment-2439925428
  args:
  - --include-crds