Deploy with Helm

A Helm chart is a package that bundles Kubernetes manifests into a reusable, configurable deployment unit. It makes applications easier to install, upgrade, and manage.

Using the LocalStack Helm chart lets you deploy LocalStack to Kubernetes with set defaults while still customizing resources, persistence, networking, and environment variables through a single values.yaml. This approach is especially useful for teams running LocalStack in shared clusters or CI environments where repeatable, versioned deployments matter.

This guide shows you how to install and run LocalStack on Kubernetes using the official Helm chart. It walks you through adding the Helm repository, installing and configuring LocalStack, and verifying that your deployment is running and accessible in your cluster.

• Kubernetes 1.19 or newer
• Helm 3.2.0 or newer
• A working Kubernetes cluster (self-hosted, managed, or local)
• kubectl installed and configured for your cluster
• Helm CLI installed and available in your shell PATH

Note

This creates the LocalStack resources in your cluster using the chart defaults.

If you want to use the localstack-pro image, create a values.yaml file:

Then install using your custom values:

If your auth token is stored in a Kubernetes Secret, you can reference it using valueFrom:

The chart ships with sensible defaults, but most production setups will want a small values.yaml to customize behavior.

Create a values.yaml and apply it during install/upgrade:

After a short time, you should see the LocalStack Pod in Running status:

If you’re running a local cluster (for example, k3d) and LocalStack is not exposed externally, port-forward the service:

Now verify connectivity with the AWS CLI:

Example response:

If you want state to survive Pod restarts, enable PVC-backed persistence:

• Set: persistence.enabled = true

Example values.yaml:

Note

This performs these two changes:

• sets PERSISTENCE=1, and
• creates a psrsistent volume claim for the (customizable) storage class.

Some environments (notably EKS on Fargate) may terminate the LocalStack pod if not configured with reasonable requests/limits:

You can inject environment variables or run a startup script to:

• pre-configure LocalStack
• seed AWS resources
• tweak LocalStack behavior

Use:

• extraEnvVars for environment variables
• startupScriptContent for startup scripts

Example pattern:

Use --namespace and create it on first install:

Then include the namespace on kubectl commands:

If you use a values.yaml:

Run:

Keep the parameter tables on this page for quick reference (especially for common settings like persistence, resources, env vars, and service exposure).