aicr bundle materializes a recipe into deployment-ready artifacts — one
folder per component, each with Helm values, checksums, and a README. This
guide covers the common bundling tasks: choosing a deployer, overriding values,
enabling or disabling components, pinning node scheduling, producing offline
bundles, and gating on component readiness.
This is a task-oriented how-to. For the complete flag list and exit codes, see
the aicr bundle section of the CLI Reference. For the
recipe → bundle → deploy → validate flow end to end, see the
End-to-End Tutorial.
The --deployer (-d) flag selects the output format. The bundle content is
the same validated configuration; only the serialization differs, so you can
re-render the same recipe for whatever pipeline you run:
| Deployer | Output |
|---|---|
helm (default) |
Per-component Helm values + a deploy.sh that installs in dependency order. |
helmfile |
A helmfile.yaml release graph. |
argocd |
Argo CD Application manifests (app-of-apps), published from a Git repo (--repo). |
argocd-helm |
A Helm chart app-of-apps; repoURL defaults to the push-target registry — plain helm install works with no --set repoURL needed. Override with --set repoURL=oci://mirror when mirroring. Bringing your own root Application? Set deployer.includeRootApp=false to render children-only — see Argo CD Deployer Options. |
flux |
Flux HelmRelease and Kustomization manifests. |
# GitOps with Argo CD, sourced from your config repo
aicr bundle --recipe recipe.yaml --deployer argocd \
--repo https://github.com/my-org/my-gitops-repo.git \
--output ./bundlesUse --set for scalar overrides, scoped per component as
component:path.to.field=value:
aicr bundle --recipe recipe.yaml \
--set gpuoperator:driver.version=570.86.16 \
--set gpuoperator:gds.enabled=true \
--output ./bundlesOn recipes that carry an ADR-015 configuration profile
(metadata.selectedProfile, e.g. the AKS family's gpuStack), the
profile's owned paths are locked. The lock is enforced per surface:
aicr bundlestatic overrides (--set,--set-json,--set-file, or a config-file override, from any of those sources): a value identical to the selected one is accepted; a divergent value is rejected. The typed sources (--set-json,--set-file) are always rejected for the specialenabledpresence key — even when the value matches — because they would write a stray literalenabled:chart value instead of toggling the component.aicr mirror list --setoverrides: mirror exposes only the repeatable scalar--set(no--set-json/--set-file), and the same identical-accepted / divergent-rejected rule applies to it. Note thatmirror listdoes not apply a config file'sspec.bundle.deployment.setoverrides — pass image-affecting overrides to mirror via--setexplicitly.--dynamicexports: rejected whenever they merely intersect an owned path, regardless of the current value — install-time mutability of a locked path is itself the violation.- argocd-helm install-time values: any install-time key whose path equals, contains, or is contained by an owned path is rejected at Helm render time, even when the value is identical. Key presence alone trips the guard.
- Component presence (the synthetic
enabledowned path): not changeable by selecting a different profile value — profile fragments cannot assignenabled, so no--profilechoice adds or removes a component. The lock rejects removing (or bundle-subsetting away) an owned component; changing which components are present is a catalog/composition change.
Change owned value paths by regenerating with
aicr recipe --profile name=value instead; component presence is not
affected by reselection.
--set is scalar-only. For list or object values use --set-json (inline JSON)
or --set-file (value read from a file); both deep-merge objects and replace
lists/scalars, and take precedence over --set on the same path:
aicr bundle --recipe recipe.yaml \
--set-json agentgateway:allowedSourceRanges='["216.228.127.128/30"]' \
--output ./bundlesThe agentgateway inference-gateway is private by default: with no
allowedSourceRanges override, the bundler scopes the LoadBalancer to private
RFC1918 ranges so it is not exposed to the public internet. Use the override
above to admit specific clients (e.g. a corporate VPN). See
Inference Gateway Network Exposure.
The special enabled key includes or excludes a component at bundle time
without editing the recipe:
# Skip the AWS EBS CSI driver for this bundle
aicr bundle --recipe recipe.yaml \
--set awsebscsidriver:enabled=false \
--output ./bundlesA recipe or overlay can also disable a component by default via
overrides.enabled: false (for example, a platform that ships its own
cert-manager). Such components are already excluded from the recipe's
deploymentOrder.
--set <component>:enabled=false disables a component the recipe leaves on.
A component the recipe disabled cannot be re-enabled at bundle time —
--set <component>:enabled=true on such a component is rejected with an error.
The recipe author disables a component because the target platform already
provides it, so re-enabling would install a conflicting second copy. To deploy
a component the recipe disables, edit the recipe/overlay instead.
An override whose component will not appear in the generated bundle is
rejected with an error rather than silently discarded. This covers a
component that is absent because the recipe disabled it, because
--set <component>:enabled=false removed it, because the bundlers=
filter excluded it, or because the component name is neither one the recipe declares nor a
registered valueOverrideKeys alias of one (usually a typo — registered
aliases such as gpuoperator for gpu-operator remain valid):
# Rejected: the second --set can never take effect
aicr bundle --recipe recipe.yaml \
--set nv-sentinel:enabled=false \
--set nv-sentinel:labeler.assumeDriverInstalled=true \
--output ./bundlesThe two flags ask for contradictory things — remove the component, and
configure it — so the command fails instead of shipping a bundle with
one request quietly dropped. The rejection here is about the contradiction,
not about who owns the component: a profile-owned presence lock is a
separate rejection, described at the end of this section. Only a scalar --set <component>:enabled=false
is exempt on a declared component: it is the supported way to remove
one, and it is also accepted on a component the recipe already disables.
enabled=true on a component the bundlers= filter excludes is
rejected like any other ineffective override, and the enabled key is
never honored from --set-json/--set-file (present or absent — the
typed path would write a literal enabled: chart value instead of
toggling the component).
A component whose presence a configuration profile owns cannot be removed
at all — enabled=false on it is rejected regardless of the rule above.
NVSentinel is in that position on the AKS and GKE-COS families, whose
gpuStack profiles name it; see
NVSentinel on provider-installed-driver platforms.
The same rule applies to --set-json, --set-file, --dynamic, and
the REST API's equivalent parameters. For --dynamic no path is exempt,
enabled included: a dynamic path on an absent component exports
nothing (there is no cluster-values.yaml to defer it to), and a
dynamic path is never a removal idiom. Unknown component names were
already rejected by the bundlers= filter and by --dynamic
registry validation; this extends the same fail-closed rule to every
override source.
Steer system components and GPU workloads onto the right nodes with selector and toleration flags (repeatable):
aicr bundle --recipe recipe.yaml \
--system-node-selector nodeGroup=system \
--system-node-toleration dedicated=system:NoSchedule \
--accelerated-node-selector nvidia.com/gpu.present=true \
--accelerated-node-toleration nvidia.com/gpu=present:NoSchedule \
--output ./bundles--vendor-charts pulls upstream Helm chart bytes into the bundle at bundle
time, so the artifact needs no Helm chart registry egress at deploy time. Each
vendored chart is recorded in provenance.yaml with name, version, source URL,
and SHA256. Requires the helm binary on PATH.
aicr bundle --recipe recipe.yaml --vendor-charts --output ./bundlesTrade-off: vendoring freezes the chart version. A vendored bundle will keep installing a frozen chart even if upstream later yanks it for a CVE — you lose the fail-loud signal you get when pulling charts live. Container-image pulls may still require network access. For full air-gapped operation, also mirror images; see Air-Gap Mirror.
Recipe-side manifests of mixed components (AICR-authored manifests shipped
alongside a vendored upstream chart — for example the network-operator
NicClusterPolicy or the AKS nvidia-peermem-reloader DaemonSet) get the same
lifecycle under --vendor-charts as they do without it. The vendored primary
folder wraps only the upstream chart, and the manifests are emitted as a
separate <component>-post Helm release installed immediately after it:
002-network-operator/ # wrapper chart + charts/<chart>-<ver>.tgz
003-network-operator-post/ # recipe-side manifests, tracked release
Because they are ordinary members of that release rather than Helm hook
resources, they are patched in place by helm upgrade (three-way merge),
removed by helm uninstall, and applied normally by Argo CD under
syncPolicy.automated. Bundle-layer NNN- folder ordering sequences the two
releases, so any helm.sh/hook annotation a recipe manifest declares is
stripped when the -post chart is written — the same treatment the
non-vendored path has always applied.
Earlier releases injected these manifests into the vendored wrapper chart as
helm.sh/hook: post-installresources, which Helm never re-applied on upgrade, left behind on uninstall, and Argo CD silently skipped as a PostSync hook. Those live objects are not members of the new<component>-postrelease, so a redeploy of a rebundled layout fails with Helm ownership conflicts (exists and cannot be imported into the current release) until each resource is adopted or removed.
Adoption is the default path — it is non-destructive and required before
helm upgrade --install of the -post chart. For each previously
hook-injected resource (name and kind from the new
<NNN>-<component>-post/templates/ files, or from the old primary
templates/ if you still have that bundle):
# Include -n <ns> for namespaced kinds (same <ns> as release-namespace below).
# Omit -n for cluster-scoped kinds (CRD, ClusterRole, NicClusterPolicy, …).
kubectl label -n <ns> <kind>/<name> app.kubernetes.io/managed-by=Helm --overwrite
kubectl annotate -n <ns> <kind>/<name> \
meta.helm.sh/release-name=<component>-post \
meta.helm.sh/release-namespace=<ns> --overwritePrefer kubectl delete only for kinds where cascade is acceptable (for example
a ConfigMap or ClusterRole with no dependents). Do not kubectl delete -f
CRD or Namespace manifests from a migration cleanup — deleting a CRD
garbage-collects every CR of that type cluster-wide (Gateway API / Inference
Extension CRDs under agentgateway-crds are the concrete risk), and deleting a
Namespace removes everything inside it.
--readiness-hooks emits a standalone readiness-gate chart for each component
that ships a readiness test, run as a post-component Job so the deployer blocks
on component-specific signals (e.g. GPU Operator ClusterPolicy state) that
Helm and Argo CD cannot assess natively. Supported with --deployer helm,
argocd, and argocd-helm; off by default.
aicr bundle --recipe recipe.yaml --readiness-hooks --output ./bundlesFor the default helm deployer, verify the bundle before installing it:
cd bundles && aicr verify . && chmod +x deploy.sh && ./deploy.shFor GitOps deployers, commit/publish the manifests per your Argo CD or Flux workflow. Verify the bundle directory before it enters the repository or registry; a pull-based controller reconciles on its own schedule, so a pipeline step gates what gets published rather than what the cluster applies. For the per-deployer gates and which of them the cluster can enforce, see Gating Deployment on Verification.
After deploying, confirm the cluster matches the recipe with
aicr validate.