diff --git a/ansible/roles/assets/tasks/manifests.yml b/ansible/roles/assets/tasks/manifests.yml
index 5a89f82..52068fb 100644
--- a/ansible/roles/assets/tasks/manifests.yml
+++ b/ansible/roles/assets/tasks/manifests.yml
@@ -22,8 +22,8 @@
 
     - name: Aggregate chart_values into dict
       ansible.builtin.set_fact:
-        workloadcluster_chartvalues: "{{ workloadcluster_chartvalues | default({}) | combine({ item.key: { 'chart_values': (item.value.chart_values | from_yaml) } }) }}"
-      when: item.value.chart_values is defined
+        workloadcluster_chartvalues: "{{ workloadcluster_chartvalues | default({}) | combine({ item.key: { 'chart_values': (item.value.chart_values | default('') | from_yaml) } }) }}"
+      # when: item.value.chart_values is defined
       loop: "{{ query('ansible.builtin.dict', downstream.helm_charts) }}"
       loop_control:
         label: "{{ item.key }}"
diff --git a/ansible/roles/firstboot/files/ansible_payload/bootstrap/templates/applicationset.j2 b/ansible/roles/firstboot/files/ansible_payload/bootstrap/templates/applicationset.j2
index cdfd461..580752f 100644
--- a/ansible/roles/firstboot/files/ansible_payload/bootstrap/templates/applicationset.j2
+++ b/ansible/roles/firstboot/files/ansible_payload/bootstrap/templates/applicationset.j2
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ spec:
         automated:
           prune: true
           selfHeal: true
+        syncOptions:
+        - CreateNamespace=true
       sources:
       - repoURL: {{ _template.repository.url }}
         targetRevision: {{ _template.repository.revision }}