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Repositories

Hydra uses two Git repositories with distinct responsibilities.

Charts Repository

The charts-repository is the application catalog. It contains:

charts-repository/
    apps/
        cluster-infra/
            root/              ← Root app for this group
            cert-manager/      ← Child app
            ingress-nginx/     ← Child app
            ...
        demo/
            root/
            service-auth/
            ...
        cicd/
            root/
            gitlab-runner/
    shared/
        infra_library/         ← Shared Helm library charts

Each child app directory contains: - Chart.yaml — Chart metadata and dependencies - templates/ — Helm templates - values.yaml — Default values including global.hydra configuration (refs, presets, clones, etc.)

Responsibility: Define what gets deployed (chart logic, default configuration, dependency model).

GitOps Repository

The gitops-repository contains per-cluster configuration:

Responsibility: Define where and how things are deployed (cluster-specific overrides, secrets, revision pins).

Why Two Repositories?

Concern Charts Repo GitOps Repo
Application logic ✓
Default values ✓
Ref definitions ✓
Cluster-specific values ✓
Secret references ✓
Environment promotion ✓
ArgoCD revision pins ✓

The separation enables: - Reuse — One chart definition, many cluster deployments - Promotion — Promote versions across environments without touching chart code - Access control — Different teams can own charts vs. cluster config

Value Layering

Values merge bottom-up:

  1. charts-repository/apps/<group>/<app>/values.yaml (base)
  2. gitops-repository/clusters/<cluster>/<group>/values.yaml (group override)
  3. gitops-repository/clusters/<cluster>/<group>/in-cluster/<app>/values.yaml (app override)
  4. Hydra ConfigMaps (runtime injection)

See Values: Overview for the full merge semantics.

See Also