diff --git a/garden-service/src/plugins/kubernetes/helm/config.ts b/garden-service/src/plugins/kubernetes/helm/config.ts
index a73fd6df35..1a9f645df6 100644
--- a/garden-service/src/plugins/kubernetes/helm/config.ts
+++ b/garden-service/src/plugins/kubernetes/helm/config.ts
@@ -352,5 +352,10 @@ export async function configureHelmModule({
     "release-name": getReleaseName(moduleConfig),
   }
 
+  // Automatically set the include if not explicitly set
+  if (!moduleConfig.include) {
+    moduleConfig.include = containsSources ? ["*", "charts/**/*", "templates/**/*"] : []
+  }
+
   return { moduleConfig }
 }
diff --git a/garden-service/test/integ/src/plugins/kubernetes/helm/config.ts b/garden-service/test/integ/src/plugins/kubernetes/helm/config.ts
index 2ba1c0f0d0..c7a89c4205 100644
--- a/garden-service/test/integ/src/plugins/kubernetes/helm/config.ts
+++ b/garden-service/test/integ/src/plugins/kubernetes/helm/config.ts
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ describe("validateHelmModule", () => {
       },
       configPath: resolve(ctx.projectRoot, "api", "garden.yml"),
       description: "The API backend for the voting UI",
-      include: undefined,
+      include: ["*", "charts/**/*", "templates/**/*"],
       exclude: undefined,
       name: "api",
       outputs: {
@@ -122,6 +122,19 @@ describe("validateHelmModule", () => {
     })
   })
 
+  it("should not set default includes if they have already been explicitly set", async () => {
+    patchModuleConfig("api", { include: ["foo"] })
+    const config = await garden.resolveModuleConfig(garden.log, "api")
+    expect(config.include).to.eql(["foo"])
+  })
+
+  it("should set include to empty if module does not have local chart sources", async () => {
+    // So that Chart.yaml isn't found
+    patchModuleConfig("api", { spec: { chartPath: "invalid-path" } })
+    const config = await garden.resolveModuleConfig(garden.log, "api")
+    expect(config.include).to.eql([])
+  })
+
   it("should not return a serviceConfig if skipDeploy=true", async () => {
     patchModuleConfig("api", { spec: { skipDeploy: true } })
     const config = await garden.resolveModuleConfig(garden.log, "api")