On k8s, you write those env variables into the deployment manifest that describes the container. If they are sensitive, pack them into a k8s secret and add that

On k8s, you write those env variables into the deployment manifest that describes the container. If they are sensitive, pack them into a k8s secret and add that to the container instead. You can use the external services the same way if they are already setup with things like DATABASE_URL that holds a postgres connection string to amazon RDS, etc. Running k8s doesn't mean you have to move your entire stack into k8s, you can still use hosted services just fine. In all my time with k8s, I never used Helm. If you don't need it, don't use it and keep it simple. k8s can do a ton of stuff but in reality, you barely need more than the basic.