diff --git a/prometheus/templates/_helpers.tpl b/prometheus/templates/_helpers.tpl
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..549762388
--- /dev/null
+++ b/prometheus/templates/_helpers.tpl
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+{{/*
+Copyright 2017 The Openstack-Helm Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/}}
+
+# This function generates the command line flags passed to Prometheus at time of
+# execution. This allows the Prometheus service configuration to be flexible, as
+# the only way to define Prometheus's configuration is via command line flags.
+# The yaml definition for these flags uses the full yaml path as the key, and
+# replaces underscores with hyphens to match the syntax required for the flags
+# generated (This is required due to Go's yaml parsing capabilities).
+# For example:
+#
+# conf:
+#   prometheus:
+#     command_line_flags:
+#       storage.tsdb.max_block_duration: 2h
+#
+# Will generate the following flag:
+#   --storage.tsdb.max-block-duration=2h
+#
+# Prometheus's command flags can be found by either running 'prometheus -h' or
+# 'prometheus --help-man'
+
+{{- define "prometheus.utils.command_line_flags" -}}
+{{- range $flag, $value := . }}
+{{- $flag := $flag | replace "_" "-" -}}
+{{- if eq $flag "web.enable-admin-api" -}}
+{{- if $value -}}
+{{- printf "--%s" $flag }}
+{{- end -}}
+{{- else -}}
+{{- $value := $value | toString }}
+{{- printf "--%s=%s " $flag $value }}
+{{- end -}}
+{{- end -}}
+{{- end -}}
diff --git a/prometheus/templates/bin/_prometheus.sh.tpl b/prometheus/templates/bin/_prometheus.sh.tpl
index ad0d75c1e..bbdf28038 100644
--- a/prometheus/templates/bin/_prometheus.sh.tpl
+++ b/prometheus/templates/bin/_prometheus.sh.tpl
@@ -20,18 +20,8 @@ set -ex
 COMMAND="${@:-start}"
 
 function start () {
-  exec /bin/prometheus \
-    --config.file=/etc/config/prometheus.yml \
-    --log.level={{ .Values.conf.prometheus.log.level | quote }} \
-    --query.max-concurrency={{ .Values.conf.prometheus.query.max_concurrency }} \
-    --storage.tsdb.path={{ .Values.conf.prometheus.storage.tsdb.path }} \
-    --storage.tsdb.retention={{ .Values.conf.prometheus.storage.tsdb.retention }} \
-    --storage.tsdb.min-block-duration={{ .Values.conf.prometheus.storage.tsdb.min_block_duration }} \
-    --storage.tsdb.max-block-duration={{ .Values.conf.prometheus.storage.tsdb.max_block_duration }} \
-    {{ if .Values.conf.prometheus.web_admin_api.enabled }}
-    --web.enable-admin-api \
-    {{ end }}
-    --query.timeout={{ .Values.conf.prometheus.query.timeout }}
+{{ $flags := include "prometheus.utils.command_line_flags" .Values.conf.prometheus.command_line_flags }}
+  exec /bin/prometheus --config.file=/etc/config/prometheus.yml {{ $flags }}
 }
 
 function stop () {
diff --git a/prometheus/values.yaml b/prometheus/values.yaml
index 14e41f894..e31e46933 100644
--- a/prometheus/values.yaml
+++ b/prometheus/values.yaml
@@ -182,20 +182,17 @@ manifests:
 
 conf:
   prometheus:
-    storage:
-      tsdb:
-        path: /var/lib/prometheus/data
-        retention: 7d
-        min_block_duration: 2h
-        max_block_duration: 6h
-    log:
-      format: logger:stdout?json=true
-      level: info
-    query:
-      max_concurrency: 20
-      timeout: 2m
-    web_admin_api:
-      enabled: false
+    # Consumed by a prometheus helper function to generate the command line flags
+    # for configuring the prometheus service
+    command_line_flags:
+      log.level: info
+      query.max_concurrency: 20
+      query.timeout: 2m
+      storage.tsdb.path: /var/lib/prometheus/data
+      storage.tsdb.retention: 7d
+      storage.tsdb.min_block_duration: 2h
+      storage.tsdb.max_block_duration: 2h
+      web.enable_admin_api: false
     scrape_configs:
       global:
         scrape_interval: 60s