Design, organize, and manage Helm charts for templating

Helm chart scaffolding

by wshobson · MIT license · ★ 39,857 on GitHub · updated Sep 21

Design, organize, and manage Helm charts for templating and packaging Kubernetes applications with reusable configurations. Use when creating Helm charts, packaging Kubernetes applications, or implementing templated deployments.

---
name: helm-chart-scaffolding
description: Design, organize, and manage Helm charts for templating and packaging Kubernetes applications with reusable configurations. Use when creating Helm charts, packaging Kubernetes applications, or implementing templated deployments.
---

# 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

Overview

Comprehensive guidance for creating, organizing, and managing Helm charts for packaging and deploying Kubernetes applications.

Manual install (npx, ZIP)

Claude Codenpx skills add wshobson/agents --skill helm-chart-scaffolding -g -a claude-code

Claude Code (manual)

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && curl -sL https://codeload.github.com/wshobson/agents/tar.gz/4236bb91f839 \
  | tar -xz -C ~/.claude/skills --strip-components=4 agents-4236bb91f839/plugins/kubernetes-operations/skills/helm-chart-scaffolding

Windows (PowerShell)

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$HOME\.claude\skills" | Out-Null; Invoke-WebRequest "https://m.agentalley.io/zip/41c7dc2d20b96612a5c4/helm-chart-scaffolding.zip" -OutFile "$env:TEMP\helm-chart-scaffolding.zip"; Expand-Archive "$env:TEMP\helm-chart-scaffolding.zip" -DestinationPath "$HOME\.claude\skills" -Force

Claude.ai / desktopDownload the ZIP and upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

Codex, Cursor, other agentsPoint them at SKILL.md. The other files are plain text.

Connects with Agent Alley MCP · agentalley.io/mcp

Files included

SKILL.md2.1 KB
assets/2 files · 3.9 KB
references/2 files · 20.4 KB
scripts/1 file · 6.4 KB

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wshobson/4236bb96 files

SKILL.md2.1 KB

SKILL.md

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Outline

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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

Detailed patterns and worked examples

Detailed pattern documentation lives in references/details.md. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.

Best Practices

Use semantic versioning for chart and app versions
Document all values in values.yaml with comments
Use template helpers for repeated logic
Validate charts before packaging
Pin dependency versions explicitly
Use conditions for optional resources
Follow naming conventions (lowercase, hyphens)
Include NOTES.txt with usage instructions
Add labels consistently using helpers
Test installations in all environments

Troubleshooting

Template rendering errors:

helm template my-app ./my-app --debug

Dependency issues:

helm dependency update
helm dependency list

Installation failures:

helm install my-app ./my-app --dry-run --debug
kubectl get events --sort-by='.lastTimestamp'

k8s-manifest-generator - For creating base Kubernetes manifests
gitops-workflow - For automated Helm chart deployments

1	---
2	name: helm-chart-scaffolding
3	description: Design, organize, and manage Helm charts for templating and packaging Kubernetes applications with reusable configurations. Use when creating Helm charts, packaging Kubernetes applications, or implementing templated deployments.
4	---
5
6	# Helm Chart Scaffolding
7
8	Comprehensive guidance for creating, organizing, and managing Helm charts for packaging and deploying Kubernetes applications.
9
10	## Purpose
11
12	This skill provides step-by-step instructions for building production-ready Helm charts, including chart structure, templating patterns, values management, and validation strategies.
13
14	## When to Use This Skill
15
16	Use this skill when you need to:
17
18	- Create new Helm charts from scratch
19	- Package Kubernetes applications for distribution
20	- Manage multi-environment deployments with Helm
21	- Implement templating for reusable Kubernetes manifests
22	- Set up Helm chart repositories
23	- Follow Helm best practices and conventions
24
25	## Detailed patterns and worked examples
26
27	Detailed pattern documentation lives in `references/details.md`. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.
28
29	## Best Practices
30
31	1. Use semantic versioning for chart and app versions
32	2. Document all values in values.yaml with comments
33	3. Use template helpers for repeated logic
34	4. Validate charts before packaging
35	5. Pin dependency versions explicitly
36	6. Use conditions for optional resources
37	7. Follow naming conventions (lowercase, hyphens)
38	8. Include NOTES.txt with usage instructions
39	9. Add labels consistently using helpers
40	10. Test installations in all environments
41
42	## Troubleshooting
43
44	Template rendering errors:
45
46	```bash
47	helm template my-app ./my-app --debug
48	```
49
50	Dependency issues:
51
52	```bash
53	helm dependency update
54	helm dependency list
55	```
56
57	Installation failures:
58
59	```bash
60	helm install my-app ./my-app --dry-run --debug
61	kubectl get events --sort-by='.lastTimestamp'
62	```
63
64
65	## Related Skills
66
67	- `k8s-manifest-generator` - For creating base Kubernetes manifests
68	- `gitops-workflow` - For automated Helm chart deployments
69