What

Adds a scoped multi-namespace mode: a third RBAC posture between the existing watchGlobally: true (cluster-wide, needs a ClusterRole) and single-namespace mode. You give Reloader an explicit list of namespaces, and it watches exactly those — with a namespace-scoped Role + RoleBinding created in each, no ClusterRole, from a single install.

Why

Today watching N namespaces means either granting cluster-wide RBAC (watchGlobally: true) or running N separate Reloader installs. Many clusters (multi-tenant / restricted RBAC) forbid ClusterRole grants, and one-install-per-namespace is wasteful. This closes that gap: one install, scoped permissions, no cluster-scoped objects.

How

Helm

• New reloader.namespaces value, active when watchGlobally: false. Accepts either a YAML list (["team-a","team-b"]) or a comma-separated string ("team-a,team-b") for consistency with ignoreNamespaces / namespaceSelector.
• The release namespace is always auto-included (needed for the meta-info ConfigMap, HA leases, and events).
• role.yaml / rolebinding.yaml range over the deduped namespace set, emitting one Role + RoleBinding per namespace. The rule set is factored into a shared reloader-namespaced-rules helper to avoid duplication. The RoleBinding subject is the ServiceAccount in the release namespace (standard cross-namespace binding).
• deployment.yaml passes --namespaces=<csv> and omits KUBERNETES_NAMESPACE in scoped mode.
• A fail guard rejects the contradictory watchGlobally: true + namespaces combination.

Binary

• New --namespaces flag (StringSlice, consistent with the other namespace flags).
• resolveWatchNamespaces() picks the watched set with precedence: --namespaces → KUBERNETES_NAMESPACE → all namespaces.
• Controller creation loops over the watched namespaces (each informer is already namespace-scoped, so no informer/handler changes were needed).
• --namespaces-to-ignore is now only honored in global mode (watchGlobally: true); in single-namespace and scoped modes the watched set is already explicit, mirroring how --namespace-selector is already gated.

Backward compatibility

Fully backward compatible. With reloader.namespaces empty (the default), rendered output is identical to today for both watchGlobally: true and watchGlobally: false (verified by diffing rendered manifests against the previous templates — the only delta is one cosmetic blank line removed by a cleaner apiVersion block).

Testing

• make build, go vet ./..., gofmt — clean.
• Unit test for resolveWatchNamespaces (all precedence cases).
• New scoped-namespaces e2e case in test/e2e/flags/watch_globally_test.go: reloads in a listed namespace and in the auto-included release namespace; does not reload in an unlisted namespace.
• helm template / helm lint verified across modes: scoped mode produces a Role+RoleBinding per namespace, zero ClusterRole, correct --namespaces arg; list and string inputs render identically; the fail guard fires on the bad combo.

Example:

helm upgrade --install reloader stakater/reloader \
  --namespace reloader-system \
  --set reloader.watchGlobally=false \
  --set "reloader.namespaces={team-a,team-b}"
# Roles in reloader-system, team-a, team-b — no ClusterRole.