chart-release

name	chart-release
description	Helm chart release workflow: helm package, chart-releaser cr, gh-pages index update, Jihulab chart upload, update_chart_values.sh, update_chart_annotations.sh, bump chart version. Use when packaging charts, publishing to helm-charts release, fixing chart index failures, or injecting release metadata into values.yaml and Chart.yaml.

Chart Release

This skill covers everything related to Helm chart releases in apecloud-cd.

Related Files

Workflows

Workflow	Purpose
.github/workflows/release-charts.yml	Main workflow: dependency update, image check, package, GitHub release upload, Jihulab sync
.github/workflows/release-charts-check.yml	Pre-release chart checks
.github/workflows/release-charts-enterprise.yml	Enterprise chart release
.github/workflows/release-charts-jihu.yml	Release charts to Jihulab
.github/workflows/release-charts-jihu-enterprise.yml	Enterprise Jihulab release
.github/workflows/upload-chart.yml	Upload a single chart

Utils

Script	Purpose
.github/utils/helm_release.sh	Full chart release: delete old packages, helm package, cr upload, index update
.github/utils/helm_package.sh	Package one or more charts, supports helm or chart-releaser
.github/utils/helm_release_update_index.sh	Update gh-pages index with cr and sync to Jihulab
.github/utils/update_chart_values.sh	Inject releaseTime/releaseBranch/commitId/commitTime into values.yaml
.github/utils/update_chart_annotations.sh	Inject commit-id/commit-time/release-time/release-branch into Chart.yaml
.github/utils/update_chart_notes.sh	Update Chart notes

Call Chain

release-charts.yml
   ├── helm_package.sh / cr
   ├── helm_image_check.sh
   ├── helm_release.sh
   └── helm_release_update_index.sh

Pre-release preparation:
   update_chart_values.sh
   update_chart_annotations.sh

Common Tasks

1. Add a new chart to the release flow

1. Place the chart directory in the correct location (commonly deploy/ or addons-related directories).
2. Confirm CHART_DIR and CHART_NAME in the release-charts.yml call.
3. If there are dependency repos, configure them in the DEP_REPO input.
4. To skip certain image checks, use SKIP_CHECK_IMAGES or disable CHECK_ENABLE.

2. Change chart release version rules

• release-charts.yml strips the v prefix by default (REMOVE_PREFIX: true).
• helm_release.sh uses CR_TOKEN to call the GitHub API.
• If you need to keep the v prefix, update both the workflow and the script consistently.

3. Fix chart index update failures

• Check whether helm_release_update_index.sh has a conflict pulling the gh-pages branch.
• The script retries up to 5 times comparing remote/local commits.
• If the index is not synced to Jihulab, verify CHART_ACCESS_TOKEN / CHART_ACCESS_USER / CHART_PROJECT_ID.

4. Inject release metadata

# values.yaml
./.github/utils/update_chart_values.sh \
    -cd addons \
    -bv chart-values/release-values.yaml \
    -rn release-1.6

# Chart.yaml annotations
./.github/utils/update_chart_annotations.sh \
    -cd addons \
    -bc chart-values/release-annotations.yaml \
    -rn release-1.6

Common Commands

# Full local chart release
./.github/utils/helm_release.sh \
    -v v1.6.1 \
    -o apecloud \
    -r helm-charts \
    -gr apecloud/helm-charts

# Local packaging
./.github/utils/helm_package.sh \
    -d deploy \
    -rv 0.4.0 \
    -av 0.4.0

Environment Variables

Variable	Purpose
CR_TOKEN	GitHub API token for chart-releaser
CHART_ACCESS_TOKEN / CHART_ACCESS_USER / CHART_PROJECT_ID	Jihulab chart upload

Related Skills

• image-management — image checks before chart release
• manifests — manifest-driven addon chart upgrades
• release-operations — GitHub release create/delete