Cadence Charts

October 30, 2025 ยท View on GitHub

This repository contains the Cadence Helm chart, officially maintained by the Cadence team at Uber. The chart provides a production-ready deployment solution for Cadence workflows and services.

What is included

  • Cadence backend services as separate deployments: frontend, history, matching, worker.
  • Fully customizable service configuration via values.yaml with complete Cadence server settings support.
  • Customizable replica counts and resource limitations.
  • Customizable dynamic config as a configmap.
  • Multiple database options: Cassandra, PostgreSQL, and MySQL support via Bitnami chart dependencies or your external database.
  • Automatic schema setup jobs: Auto-detection of database versions with configurable schema initialization for:
    • Primary databases (Cassandra, PostgreSQL, MySQL) - enabled by default
    • Elasticsearch for advanced visibility - configurable
  • Advanced visibility support: Elasticsearch integration for enhanced workflow search and filtering.
  • Cadence Web UI: Optional web interface for workflow visualization and management.

Prerequisites

  • Kubernetes 1.19+
  • Helm 3.2.0+
  • PV provisioner support in the underlying infrastructure (if persistence is enabled for databases)

Installation

Helm must be installed to use the charts. Please refer to Helm's documentation to get started.

Add Helm Repository

Once Helm has been set up correctly, add the repo as follows:

helm repo add cadence https://cadence-workflow.github.io/cadence-charts

If you had already added this repo earlier, run helm repo update to retrieve the latest versions of the packages:

helm repo update

You can then run helm search repo cadence to see the charts.

Install Chart Dependencies for local Chart

For edit directly the Chart files locally, you need to update the chart dependencies (Cassandra, PostgreSQL, or MySQL):

# Download the chart
helm pull cadence/cadence --untar

# Navigate to the chart directory
cd cadence

# Update dependencies
helm dependency update

# After that you can install using local directory

This will download the required database charts based on your configuration.

Install Cadence

To install the cadence chart with default settings (includes Cassandra):

helm install cadence-release -n cadencetest cadence/cadence

The chart will automatically:

  • Deploy the selected database (Cassandra by default)
  • Run schema setup jobs to initialize the database
  • Deploy all Cadence services (frontend, history, matching, worker)
  • Optionally deploy Cadence Web UI

To install with custom values:

helm install cadence-release cadence/cadence -f custom-values.yaml

Install with Different Database

To use PostgreSQL instead of Cassandra:

helm install cadence-release cadence/cadence \
  --set cassandra.enabled=false \
  --set postgresql.enabled=true \
  --set config.persistence.database.driver="postgres" \
  --set config.persistence.database.driver.sql.hosts= \
  --set config.persistence.database.driver.sql.user= \
  --set config.persistence.database.driver.sql.password=

To use MySQL instead of Cassandra:

helm install cadence-release cadence/cadence \
  --set cassandra.enabled=false \
  --set mysql.enabled=true \
  --set config.persistence.database.driver="mysql" \
  --set config.persistence.database.driver.sql.hosts= \
  --set config.persistence.database.driver.sql.user= \
  --set config.persistence.database.driver.sql.password=

Verify Installation

Check the status of your deployment:

# Check all pods
kubectl get pods -l app.kubernetes.io/name=cadence-release

# Check schema setup jobs
kubectl get jobs -l app.kubernetes.io/component=schema-server

# Check service status
kubectl get svc -l app.kubernetes.io/name=cadence-release

Wait for all pods to be in Running state and schema jobs to complete successfully.

Configuration

See the values.yaml file for configuration options. You can override any value using the --set flag or by providing a custom values file.

Common Configuration Examples

# Set custom replica counts
helm install cadence-release cadence/cadence -n cadencetest \
  --set server.frontend.replicaCount=3 \
  --set server.history.replicaCount=3

# Use external database
helm install cadence-release cadence/cadence -n cadencetest \
  --set cassandra.enabled=false \
  --set server.config.persistence.default.cassandra.hosts=my-cassandra.example.com

# Disable automatic schema setup (if managing schemas externally)
helm install cadence-release cadence/cadence -n cadencetest \
  --set schema.setup.enabled=false

### Full Server Configuration

All Cadence server configuration options are available through values.yaml under `server.config`. This includes:
- Persistence settings
- Service-specific configurations
- Clustering options
- Authentication and authorization
- Archival configuration
- And more...

Refer to the [Cadence server documentation](https://cadenceworkflow.io/docs/operation-guide/setup/) for detailed configuration options.

## Uninstallation

To uninstall/delete the chart:

```bash
helm delete cadence-release -n cadencetest

This will remove all Kubernetes components associated with the chart and delete the release.

Upgrading

To upgrade an existing release:

# Update repository
helm repo update

# Upgrade release
helm upgrade cadence-release cadence/cadence -n cadencetest

# Upgrade with new values
helm upgrade cadence-release cadence/cadence -n cadencetest -f custom-values.yaml

Troubleshooting

Schema Jobs Failing

If schema setup jobs fail, check the logs:

kubectl logs job/cadence-release-schema-server
kubectl logs job/cadence-release-schema-elasticsearch

Services Not Starting

Ensure schema jobs have completed successfully before services start:

kubectl get jobs

Version Compatibility

The schema jobs automatically detect versions, but ensure your Cadence server version is compatible with your database version.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for instructions on how to contribute, run samples, and more.

Support

Community & Support