Image Updater expects `helm.parameters` in application manifest despite Git write back configuration

[JohnnyJayJay]

Basically a follow-up to #1289 #1293. First of all, thank you for your quick response over there! Setup for this issue is the exact same as in the original issue.

Describe the bug
When specifying a Helm parameter as a write-back-target, the image-updater also expects that parameter to be present in Argo CD helm.parameters configuration. If it isn't specified, an exception is thrown (see

argocd-image-updater/pkg/argocd/update.go

Line 427 in 932d2fc

helmParamVer := getHelmParam(appSource.Helm.Parameters, helmParamVersion)

).

To Reproduce
See #1289

Expected behavior
If the image-name/image-tag parameter is not directly specified in the application manifest, the image updater should simply skip updating the live application manifest and only update the specified values.yaml file, instead of failing completely. Alternatively, it could add the parameter dynamically, whichever is more consistent with other behaviour.

Additional context
Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but this appears to break the functionality completely for declarative setups.

The Argo CD docs mention that helm.parameters in the application manifest override whatever is set in the values.yaml files, so if your application is completely declarative and self-healing, whatever the image updater does in the values.yaml file will be overridden by what was initially set in helm.parameters.

Version
Latest master/Image SHA: sha256:dab60119056dade48bc2abfbd94bc531544c6a9d9d3bd63653c254050258f464

Logs

time="2025-10-27T14:44:54Z" level=error msg="Could not update application spec: theme-image.tag parameter not found" application=keycloak-playground-dev