/helm-chart-builder

name: "helm-chart-builder"
description: "Helm chart development agent skill and plugin for Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, OpenClaw — chart scaffolding, values design, template patterns, dependency management, security hardening, and chart testing. Use when: user wants to create or improve Helm charts, design values.yaml files, implement template helpers, audit chart security (RBAC, network policies, pod security), manage subcharts, or run helm lint/test."
license: MIT
metadata:
  version: 1.0.0
  author: Alireza Rezvani
  category: engineering
  updated: 2026-03-15

Helm Chart Builder

> Production-grade Helm charts. Sensible defaults. Secure by design. No cargo-culting.

Opinionated Helm workflow that turns ad-hoc Kubernetes manifests into maintainable, testable, reusable charts. Covers chart structure, values design, template patterns, dependency management, and security hardening.

Not a Helm tutorial — a set of concrete decisions about how to build charts that operators trust and developers don't fight.

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Slash Commands

| Command | What it does | |---------|-------------| | `/helm:create` | Scaffold a production-ready Helm chart with best-practice structure | | `/helm:review` | Analyze an existing chart for issues — missing labels, hardcoded values, template anti-patterns | | `/helm:security` | Audit chart for security issues — RBAC, network policies, pod security, secrets handling |

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When This Skill Activates

Recognize these patterns from the user:

• "Create a Helm chart for this service"
• "Review my Helm chart"
• "Is this chart secure?"
• "Design a values.yaml"
• "Add a subchart dependency"
• "Set up helm tests"
• "Helm best practices for [workload type]"
• Any request involving: Helm chart, values.yaml, Chart.yaml, templates, helpers, _helpers.tpl, subcharts, helm lint, helm test

If the user has a Helm chart or wants to package Kubernetes resources → this skill applies.

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Workflow

`/helm:create` — Chart Scaffolding

1. **Identify workload type**

• Web service (Deployment + Service + Ingress)
• Worker (Deployment, no Service)
• CronJob (CronJob + ServiceAccount)
• Stateful service (StatefulSet + PVC + Headless Service)
• Library chart (no templates, only helpers)

2. **Scaffold chart structure**

   mychart/
   ├── Chart.yaml              # Chart metadata and dependencies
   ├── values.yaml             # Default configuration
   ├── values.schema.json      # Optional: JSON Schema for values validation
   ├── .helmignore             # Files to exclude from packaging
   ├── templates/
   │   ├── _helpers.tpl        # Named templates and helper functions
   │   ├── deployment.yaml     # Workload resource
   │   ├── service.yaml        # Service exposure
   │   ├── ingress.yaml        # Ingress (if applicable)
   │   ├── serviceaccount.yaml # ServiceAccount
   │   ├── hpa.yaml            # HorizontalPodAutoscaler
   │   ├── pdb.yaml            # PodDisruptionBudget
   │   ├── networkpolicy.yaml  # NetworkPolicy
   │   ├── configmap.yaml      # ConfigMap (if needed)
   │   ├── secret.yaml         # Secret (if needed)
   │   ├── NOTES.txt           # Post-install usage instructions
   │   └── tests/
   │       └── test-connection.yaml
   └── charts/                 # Subcharts (dependencies)

3. **Apply Chart.yaml best practices**

   METADATA
   ├── apiVersion: v2 (Helm 3 only — never v1)
   ├── name: matches directory name exactly
   ├── version: semver (chart version, not app version)
   ├── appVersion: application version string
   ├── description: one-line summary of what the chart deploys
   └── type: application (or library for shared helpers)

   DEPENDENCIES
   ├── Pin dependency versions with ~X.Y.Z (patch-level float)
   ├── Use condition field to make subcharts optional
   ├── Use alias for multiple instances of same subchart
   └── Run helm dependency update after changes

4. **Generate values.yaml with documentation**

• Every value has an inline comment explaining purpose and type
• Sensible defaults that work for development
• Override-friendly structure (flat where possible, nested only when logical)
• No hardcoded cluster-specific values (image registry, domain, storage class)

5. **Validate**

   python3 scripts/chart_analyzer.py mychart/
   helm lint mychart/
   helm template mychart/ --debug

`/helm:review` — Chart Analysis

1. **Check chart structure**

| Check | Severity | Fix | |-------|----------|-----| | Missing _helpers.tpl | High | Create helpers for common labels and selectors | | No NOTES.txt | Medium | Add post-install instructions | | No .helmignore | Low | Create one to exclude .git, CI files, tests | | Missing Chart.yaml fields | Medium | Add description, appVersion, maintainers | | Hardcoded values in templates | High | Extract to values.yaml with defaults |

2. **Check template quality**

| Check | Severity | Fix | |-------|----------|-----| | Missing standard labels | High | Use `app.kubernetes.io/*` labels via _helpers.tpl | | No resource requests/limits | Critical | Add resources section with defaults in values.yaml | | Hardcoded image tag | High | Use `{{ .Values.image.repository }}:{{ .Values.image.tag }}` | | No imagePullPolicy | Medium | Default to `IfNotPresent`, overridable | | Missing liveness/readiness probes | High | Add probes with configurable paths and ports | | No pod anti-affinity | Medium | Add preferred anti-affinity for HA | | Duplicate template code | Medium | Extract into named templates in _helpers.tpl |

3. **Check values.yaml quality**

   python3 scripts/values_validator.py mychart/values.yaml

4. **Generate review report**

   HELM CHART REVIEW — [chart name]
   Date: [timestamp]

   CRITICAL: [count]
   HIGH:     [count]
   MEDIUM:   [count]
   LOW:      [count]

   [Detailed findings with fix recommendations]

`/helm:se