helm

Helm + GCS/Datastore Emulators Example

Run a multi-replica Verdaccio registry on Kubernetes with the Google Cloud Storage + Datastore storage plugin, fully backed by local emulators — no GCP account needed.

Prerequisites

• A local Kubernetes cluster: minikube, kind, or Docker Desktop
• Helm 3
• kubectl

1. Build the plugin image

From the repo root:

docker build -t verdaccio-google-cloud:local .

Load it into your local cluster:

# minikube
eval $(minikube docker-env)
docker build -t verdaccio-google-cloud:local .

# kind
kind load docker-image verdaccio-google-cloud:local

# Docker Desktop
# No extra step needed — images are shared

2. Deploy emulators

kubectl apply -f emulators.yaml

Wait for them to be ready:

kubectl -n gcp-emulators rollout status deployment/fake-gcs-server
kubectl -n gcp-emulators rollout status deployment/datastore-emulator

3. Create GCS bucket

kubectl apply -f init-resources.yaml

Wait for the job to complete:

kubectl -n gcp-emulators wait --for=condition=complete job/init-gcp-resources --timeout=60s

4. Install Verdaccio

helm repo add verdaccio https://charts.verdaccio.org
helm repo update
helm install verdaccio verdaccio/verdaccio -f values.yaml

5. Verify

# Check pods
kubectl get pods -l app.kubernetes.io/name=verdaccio

# Check plugin loaded
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/name=verdaccio | grep "google-cloud"

# Port-forward
kubectl port-forward svc/verdaccio 4873:4873

In another terminal:

# Ping
curl http://localhost:4873/-/ping

# Add user
npm adduser --registry http://localhost:4873

# Create and publish a test package
mkdir /tmp/helm-test && cd /tmp/helm-test
echo '{"name":"helm-test-pkg","version":"1.0.0"}' > package.json
npm publish --registry http://localhost:4873

# Verify it's stored
curl -s http://localhost:4873/helm-test-pkg | jq .name

6. Scale up

Edit values.yaml and change replicaCount, or:

kubectl scale deployment verdaccio --replicas=3

All replicas share the same GCS bucket and Datastore database via the emulators.

7. Inspect emulator data

# Port-forward fake-gcs-server
kubectl -n gcp-emulators port-forward svc/fake-gcs-server 5050:5050

# List GCS objects
curl -s http://localhost:5050/storage/v1/b/verdaccio-storage/o | jq '.items[].name'

# Port-forward Datastore emulator
kubectl -n gcp-emulators port-forward svc/datastore-emulator 8081:8081

# Set emulator host for Datastore clients
export DATASTORE_EMULATOR_HOST=localhost:8081

8. Clean up

helm uninstall verdaccio
kubectl delete -f init-resources.yaml
kubectl delete -f emulators.yaml

File overview

File	Description
values.yaml	Helm values for Verdaccio — 2 replicas, emulator endpoints, trace logging
emulators.yaml	Deployment + Service for fake-gcs-server and Datastore emulator in their own namespace
init-resources.yaml	Job that creates the GCS bucket in fake-gcs-server