PackageVariant Controllers

Overview

PackageVariant and PackageVariantSet controllers automate creation and management of package revisions through two levels of templating:

• PackageVariant: Creates multiple downstream package revisions from a single upstream package
• PackageVariantSet: Creates multiple PackageVariants from a single template

Both controllers run in the same pod as Repository Controller and are configured via the --reconcilers flag.

What Do These Controllers Do?

The PackageVariant controllers provide declarative, template-based automation for creating multiple downstream variants of packages:

• Declarative Package Management: Define desired package variants rather than manually creating each PackageRevision
• Multi-Target Distribution: Create variants across multiple repositories or for multiple targets from a single declaration
• Change Detection and Reconciliation: Automatically detect upstream package changes and create new downstream revisions (upgrades or edits)
• Template-Based Generation: Use CEL expressions to dynamically generate package metadata, labels, annotations, and configuration based on target context
• Ownership Management: Track which PackageRevisions are owned by which PackageVariant with configurable deletion policies (delete or orphan)
• Resource Injection: Dynamically inject configuration from in-cluster resources into generated packages

Controllers

• PackageVariant Controller - Automates downstream package creation with customizations
• PackageVariantSet Controller - Automates PackageVariant creation from templates

Architecture

• Design Patterns - Controller design patterns and architecture decisions
• Interactions with Porch APIs - How controllers interact with Porch API

Functionality

• PackageVariant Reconciliation - PackageVariant reconciliation logic
• PackageVariantSet Reconciliation - PackageVariantSet reconciliation logic
• Mutation Application - Package mutation operations