generating-helm-charts

name	generating-helm-charts
description	Execute use when generating Helm charts for Kubernetes applications. Trigger with phrases like "create Helm chart", "generate chart for app", "package Kubernetes deployment", or "helm template". Produces production-ready charts with Chart.yaml, values.yaml, templates, and best practices for multi-environment deployments.
allowed-tools	Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob, Bash(helm:*), Bash(kubectl:*)
version	1.25.0
author	Jeremy Longshore <[e-mail]>
license	MIT
tags	["devops","deployment","kubernetes"]
compatibility	Designed for Claude Code

Generating Helm Charts

Overview

Generate production-ready Helm 3 charts for Kubernetes applications with Chart.yaml, values.yaml, Go templates, and helper functions. Support multi-environment deployments with values overrides, dependency management, security contexts, health probes, and resource limits following Helm best practices.

Prerequisites

• Helm 3.x installed (helm version)
• kubectl configured with cluster access for testing chart installation
• Container images available in a registry accessible from the cluster
• Understanding of application resource requirements (CPU, memory, ports, volumes)
• Chart repository access if publishing (ChartMuseum, OCI registry, or GitHub Pages)

Instructions

1. Analyze the application: identify container images, ports, environment variables, volumes, and dependencies
2. Scaffold the chart structure: Chart.yaml, values.yaml, templates/, charts/, .helmignore
3. Create Chart.yaml with apiVersion: v2, name, version, appVersion, and dependency declarations
4. Define values.yaml with sensible production defaults: replica count, image config, resource limits, ingress settings
5. Build templates using Go template syntax with proper .Values references and _helpers.tpl for reusable named templates
6. Add health checks: livenessProbe and readinessProbe in the deployment template with configurable paths and thresholds
7. Configure security context: runAsNonRoot: true, readOnlyRootFilesystem: true, and drop all capabilities
8. Create environment-specific values files: values-dev.yaml, values-staging.yaml, values-prod.yaml
9. Add NOTES.txt with post-install instructions showing how to access the application
10. Validate with helm lint . and test rendering with helm template . --values values-prod.yaml

Output

• Complete Helm chart directory structure
• Chart.yaml with metadata and dependencies
• values.yaml with documented, configurable defaults