Deploy Daemon for Kubernetes-based distributions: what is the intended path for ExApps?

[street1983nk]

I maintain an MCP-only ExApp (mcp_connector, in the App Store since 0.1.0) and I am trying to work out whether it can run in a Helm/Kubernetes based Nextcloud distribution at all, before I invest in the integration work.

What I understand from the documentation:

• docker_install (HaRP, or the deprecated DSP) is the production path, and both talk to a Docker Engine.
• manual_install is documented as being for development or special cases, not for production.
• DSP is scheduled for removal in Nextcloud 35.

The concrete case is openDesk, the sovereign workplace suite deployed by ZenDiS for German public administration. It is deployed via Helmfile on Kubernetes, and in its Nextcloud values the app store is switched off (appstore: enabled: false in helmfile/apps/nextcloud/values-nextcloud-management.yaml.gotmpl). I could not find any AppAPI configuration there, though I have only read the Nextcloud values of that deployment, not the whole project.

My questions:

1. Is there a supported or planned Deploy Daemon for Kubernetes, or an IDeployActions implementation that someone is maintaining?
2. If not, is manual_install a legitimate production choice when the operator runs the ExApp container themselves as a normal Kubernetes workload and only registers it with Nextcloud, or does that path carry limitations I should know about (updates, health checks, HaRP routing, the app store UI)?
3. Is there guidance for ExApp authors whose users run distributions rather than plain Docker installs? Right now I cannot tell my users whether the answer is "not yet", "yes, like this" or "not planned".

Happy to write up whatever the answer is as documentation, if that helps.