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

## Helm Overview

**Helm** is the package manager for Kubernetes that:
- Templates Kubernetes manifests for reusability
- Manages application releases and rollbacks
- Handles dependencies between charts
- Provides version control for deployments
- Simplifies configuration management across environments

## Step-by-Step Workflow

### 1. Initialize Chart Structure

**Create new chart:**
```bash
helm create my-app
```

**Standard chart structure:**
```
my-app/
├── Chart.yaml           # Chart metadata
├── values.yaml          # Default configuration values
├── charts/              # Chart dependencies
├── templates/           # Kubernetes manifest templates
│   ├── NOTES.txt       # Post-install notes
│   ├── _helpers.tpl    # Template helpers
│   ├── deployment.yaml
│   ├── service.yaml
│   ├── ingress.yaml
│   ├── serviceaccount.yaml
│   ├── hpa.yaml
│   └── tests/
│       └── test-connection.yaml
└── .helmignore         # Files to ignore
```

### 2. Configure Chart.yaml

**Chart metadata defines the package:**

```yaml
apiVersion: v2
name: my-app
description: A Helm chart for My Application
type: application
version: 1.0.0      # Chart version
appVersion: "2.1.0" # Application version

# Keywords for chart discovery
keywords:
  - web
  - api
  - backend

# Maintainer information
maintainers:
  -