nindent vs indent in Practice

Here is the catch: indent shifts every line but does not add a leading newline. The first line lands right where the action sits.

The nindent function does the same spacing but first prints a newline, so the block starts cleanly on its own fresh line.

That leading newline from nindent means you do not have to leave a trailing space and guess alignment after a key on the same line.

You will reach for nindent most when pairing a toYaml block under a key, since it places the rendered map neatly below the key.

Pick the number by counting spaces from the parent key, not from column zero. A child two levels deep usually needs nindent 4.

Plain indent is right when the block already begins on its own line, so you do not want an extra newline pushed in front of it.

Most YAML nesting steps by two spaces. Getting the nindent count wrong by two is the top cause of a chart that fails to parse.

Never guess the depth. Run helm template and read the raw output to confirm the inserted block lines up under its parent key.

Both helpers read the string from the pipe on their left, so they pair naturally with toYaml to format a whole map into your manifest.

You now know indent spaces a block, nindent adds a newline first, and rendering is the surest way to confirm the depth. 🧹