From f6cb627b81e20e80c010c4a3a85fdfb804ba2bf4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ralf Grubenmann <ralf.grubenmann@sdsc.ethz.ch>
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2026 10:00:09 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] feat: allow setting custom env vars

---
 README.md                             | 8 ++++++++
 templates/models/knative-serving.yaml | 6 ++++++
 tools/helm/lint-values.yaml           | 8 ++++++++
 3 files changed, 22 insertions(+)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index be7ea4a..99a988f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -77,6 +77,14 @@ models:
     chatTemplate: # if you want to use a custom chat template. Usually left empty. The template must exist in the docker image to work
       repository:
       tag:
+    env: # optional: extra environment variables to set on the model container.
+      - name: MY_VAR
+        value: my-value
+      - name: SECRET_VAR
+        valueFrom:
+          secretKeyRef:
+            name: my-secret
+            key: my-key
     resources: # the compute resources to request
       requests: # specifies typical usage requests
         cpu: 1
diff --git a/templates/models/knative-serving.yaml b/templates/models/knative-serving.yaml
index 9b419e9..c398462 100644
--- a/templates/models/knative-serving.yaml
+++ b/templates/models/knative-serving.yaml
@@ -36,6 +36,9 @@ spec:
               value: "0.0.0.0"
             - name: VERBOSE
               value: "true"
+    {{- if $model.env }}
+            {{- toYaml $model.env | nindent 12 }}
+    {{- end }}
           startupProbe:
             httpGet:
               path: /health
@@ -190,6 +193,9 @@ spec:
     {{- if or $persistence.enabled $cacheDir }}
             - name: VLLM_CACHE_ROOT
               value: {{ $cachePath }}/.cache/vllm
+    {{- end }}
+    {{- if $model.env }}
+            {{- toYaml $model.env | nindent 12 }}
     {{- end }}
           startupProbe:
             httpGet:
diff --git a/tools/helm/lint-values.yaml b/tools/helm/lint-values.yaml
index 85e9266..4fe4319 100644
--- a/tools/helm/lint-values.yaml
+++ b/tools/helm/lint-values.yaml
@@ -22,6 +22,14 @@ models:
     internal: true
     apiKey: dummy
     persistence: { enabled: true } # renders models/pvc.yaml and the chart-owned claim
+    env: # exercises the custom env vars templated into knative-serving.yaml
+      - name: MODEL_CUSTOM_VAR
+        value: custom-value
+      - name: MODEL_SECRET_VAR
+        valueFrom:
+          secretKeyRef:
+            name: my-secret
+            key: my-key
     resources:
       requests: { cpu: 1, memory: 1G }
       limits: { cpu: 2, memory: 2G }