K8s Helm Chart

Creates production-ready Helm charts for Kubernetes applications with parameterized templates, values files, and best practices.

When to Use This

• Package app for multiple environments (dev, staging, prod)
• Need configurable deployments (replicas, resources, ingress)
• Want version-controlled releases
• Deploy to multiple clusters with different configs
• Single environment deployment (use /k8s-manifest-generate)
• Quick one-off deployment (use kubectl run)

How It Works

You are a Helm expert. When user runs /k8s-helm-chart or /kh:

1. Detect application:

• Identify workload type (Deployment, StatefulSet)
• Determine configuration needs
• Check for persistence requirements
• Assess external access needs

1. Generate chart structure:

   mychart/
   ├── Chart.yaml           # Chart metadata
   ├── values.yaml          # Default values
   ├── values-dev.yaml      # Dev overrides
   ├── values-prod.yaml     # Production overrides
   ├── templates/
   │   ├── deployment.yaml  # Parameterized deployment
   │   ├── service.yaml     # Parameterized service
   │   ├── ingress.yaml     # Conditional ingress
   │   ├── configmap.yaml   # Configuration
   │   ├── secret.yaml      # Secrets (template only)
   │   ├── hpa.yaml         # Auto-scaling (conditional)
   │   └── _helpers.tpl     # Template helpers
   └── README.md            # Usage documentation

1. Parameterize templates:

• Use Go templating ({{ .Values.* }})
• Add conditionals for optional resources
• Create reusable helpers
• Apply naming conventions

1. Provide values files:

• Sensible defaults in values.yaml
• Environment-specific overrides
• Comments explaining each value

1. Include deployment guide:

• Installation commands
• Upgrade procedures
• Rollback instructions
• Values customization guide

Output Format

# Complete chart directory structure
# Ready to use with helm install/upgrade

## Installation

### Install chart:

helm install myapp ./mychart -f values-prod.yaml

### Upgrade:

helm upgrade myapp ./mychart -f values-prod.yaml

### Rollback:

helm rollback myapp

Example

User: /kh (for Node.js API)

Questions:

• App name? → nodejs-api
• Chart version? → 1.0.0
• Default image? → myregistry/nodejs-api:latest
• Configurable options? → Replicas, resources, ingress, auto-scaling

Output:

# Chart.yaml
apiVersion: v2
name: nodejs-api
description: Production-ready Node.js API Helm chart
type: application
version: 1.0.0
appVersion: "1.0.0"
keywords:
  - nodejs
  - api
  - microservice
maintainers:
  - name: Your Name
    email: [email protected]

# values.yaml
# Default values for nodejs-api chart

# Docker image configuration
image:
  repository: myregistry/nodejs-api
  pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  tag: "latest"  # Override this in production!

# Number of replicas
replicaCount: 3

# Resource limits and requests
resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 250m
    memory: 512Mi
  limits:
…

# values-dev.yaml
# Development environment overrides

replicaCount: 1

autoscaling:
  enabled: false

image:
  tag: "dev"

resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 100m
    memory: 256Mi
  limits:
    cpu: 250m
    memory: 512Mi
…

# values-prod.yaml
# Production environment overrides

replicaCount: 5

image:
  tag: "1.0.0"  # Specific version, not 'latest'

autoscaling:
  enabled: true
  minReplicas: 3
  maxReplicas: 20

resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 500m
    memory: 1Gi
  limits:
…

# templates/deployment.yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: {{ include "nodejs-api.fullname" . }}
  labels:
    {{- include "nodejs-api.labels" . | nindent 4 }}
spec:
  {{- if not .Values.autoscaling.enabled }}
  replicas: {{ .Values.replicaCount }}
  {{- end }}
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      {{- include "nodejs-api.selectorLabels" . | nindent 6 }}
  strategy:
    type: RollingUpdate
    rollingUpdate:
      maxSurge: 1
…

# templates/service.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: {{ include "nodejs-api.fullname" . }}
  labels:
    {{- include "nodejs-api.labels" . | nindent 4 }}
spec:
  type: {{ .Values.service.type }}
  ports:
    - port: {{ .Values.service.port }}
      targetPort: http
      protocol: TCP
      name: http
  selector:
    {{- include "nodejs-api.selectorLabels" . | nindent 4 }}

# templates/ingress.yaml
{{- if .Values.ingress.enabled -}}
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: {{ include "nodejs-api.fullname" . }}
  labels:
    {{- include "nodejs-api.labels" . | nindent 4 }}
  {{- with .Values.ingress.annotations }}
  annotations:
    {{- toYaml . | nindent 4 }}
  {{- end }}
spec:
  ingressClassName: {{ .Values.ingress.className }}
  {{- if .Values.ingress.tls }}
  tls:
    {{- range .Values.ingress.tls }}
    - hosts:
…