Authoring Helm Classic Charts

It is important for chart authors to understand Helm Classic fundamentals. Before you begin, make sure you are familiar with:

Background

Helm Classic Charts consist of three items:

  1. A manifests directory for Kubernetes resources
  2. A Chart.yaml file
  3. A README.md

The directory structure of a chart is as follows:

|- mychart/
    |
    |- manifests/
         |
         |- mychart-rc.yaml
         |- mychart-service.yaml
         |- ...
    |- Chart.yaml
    |- README.md

Create a new Chart

Step 1: Create the Chart in your Workspace

Use helmc create <chart-name> to create a new chart in your workspace. This will copy the default "skeleton" chart into ~/.helmc/workspace/charts/<chart-name>.

Step 2: Edit the Chart

Use helmc edit <chart-name> to open all files in the chart in a single editor.

For convenience, this will present all the chart files inside a single editor, with --- : <filepath> delimiters. This makes it easy to modify a chart, add files, and remove files all within a single helmc edit command.

If you prefer to edit files manually, you can use an IDE or any other file-based editor.

Step 3: Test the Chart

Use helmc test <chart-name> to test installing the chart and validating that the proper Kubernetes resources are created, as evidenced by the helmc test output and return code.

Step 4: Publish the Chart

Use helmc publish <chart-name> to copy a chart from your local workspace into the Git checkout that lives under ~/.helmc/cache. From here you can submit a pull request.