Helm Chart Scaffolding

# Helm Chart Scaffolding

Comprehensive guidance for creating, organizing, and managing Helm charts for packaging and deploying Kubernetes applications.

## Purpose

This skill provides step-by-step instructions for building production-ready Helm charts, including chart structure, templating patterns, values management, and validation strategies.

## When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

- Create new Helm charts from scratch
- Package Kubernetes applications for distribution
- Manage multi-environment deployments with Helm
- Implement templating for reusable Kubernetes manifests
- Set up Helm chart repositories
- Follow Helm best practices and conventions

## Detailed patterns and worked examples

Detailed pattern documentation lives in `references/details.md`. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.

## Best Practices

1. **Use semantic versioning** for chart and app versions
2. **Document all values** in values.yaml with comments
3. **Use template helpers** for repeated logic
4. **Validate charts** before packaging
5. **Pin dependency versions** explicitly
6. **Use conditions** for optional resources
7. **Follow naming conventions** (lowercase, hyphens)
8. **Include NOTES.txt** with usage instructions
9. **Add labels** consistently using helpers
10. **Test installations** in all environments

## Troubleshooting

**Template rendering errors:**

```bash
helm template my-app ./my-app --debug
```

**Dependency issues:**

```bash
helm dependency update
helm dependency list
```

**Installation failures:**

```bash
helm install my-app ./my-app --dry-run --debug
kubectl get events --sort-by='.lastTimestamp'
```


## Related Skills

- `k8s-manifest-generator` - For creating base Kubernetes manifests
- `gitops-workflow` - For automated Helm chart deployments


apiVersion: v2
name: <chart-name>
description: <Chart description>
type: application
version: 0.1.0
appVersion: "1.0.0"

keywords:
  - <keyword1>
  - <keyword2>

home: https://github.com/<org>/<repo>

sources:
  - https://github.com/<org>/<repo>

maintainers:
  - name: <Maintainer Name>
    email: <maintainer@example.com>
    url: https://github.com/<username>

icon: https://example.com/icon.png

kubeVersion: ">=1.24.0"

dependencies:
  - name: postgresql
    version: "12.0.0"
    repository: "https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami"
    condition: postgresql.enabled
    tags:
      - database
  - name: redis
    version: "17.0.0"
    repository: "https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami"
    condition: redis.enabled
    tags:
      - cache

annotations:
  category: Application
  licenses: Apache-2.0


# Helm Chart Structure Reference

Complete guide to Helm chart organization, file conventions, and best practices.

## Standard Chart Directory Structure

```
my-app/
├── Chart.yaml              # Chart metadata (required)
├── Chart.lock              # Dependency lock file (generated)
├── values.yaml             # Default configuration values (required)
├── values.schema.json      # JSON schema for values validation
├── .helmignore             # Patterns to ignore when packaging
├── README.md               # Chart documentation
├── LICENSE                 # Chart license
├── charts/                 # Chart dependencies (bundled)
│   └── postgresql-12.0.0.tgz
├── crds/                   # Custom Resource Definitions
│   └── my-crd.yaml
├── templates/              # Kubernetes manifest templates (required)
│   ├── NOTES.txt          # Post-install instructions
│   ├── _helpers.tpl       # Template helper functions
│   ├── deployment.yaml
│   ├── service.yaml
│   ├── ingress.yaml
│   ├── configmap.yaml
│   ├── secret.yaml
│   ├── serviceaccount.yaml
│   ├── hpa.yaml
│   ├── pdb