Helm Chart Development#

Writing your own Helm charts turns static YAML into reusable, configurable packages. The learning curve is in Go’s template syntax and Helm’s conventions, but once you internalize the patterns, chart development is fast.

Chart Structure#

Create a new chart scaffold:

helm create my-app

This generates:

my-app/
  Chart.yaml              # chart metadata (name, version, dependencies)
  values.yaml             # default configuration values
  charts/                 # dependency charts (populated by helm dependency update)
  templates/              # Kubernetes manifest templates
    deployment.yaml
    service.yaml
    ingress.yaml
    serviceaccount.yaml
    hpa.yaml
    NOTES.txt             # post-install instructions (printed after helm install)
    _helpers.tpl           # named template definitions
    tests/
      test-connection.yaml # helm test pod

Chart.yaml#

The Chart.yaml defines your chart’s identity and dependencies: