Helm Chart Creation and Upgrade Safety
Build or repair Helm charts with stable upgrades, validated values, scoped security, and an honest test report.
Before & after
Same prompt, same agent — the only difference is the skill.
I can help you create a professional Helm chart for your microservice deployment. You'll definitely need to define your values.yaml file, create Kubernetes templates for Deployment, Service, and ConfigMap, set up RBAC role-based access control if needed, and add security hardening settings. Tell me about your microservice—what is it and what does it do? What compute resources does it need? Do you want to include database connection configurations? Should I add network policies for traffic control?
PRODUCTION HELM CHART SPECIFICATION: CHART CONFIGURATION FILES: • Chart.yaml: chart name: myapp-chart, version: 1.0.0, description, dependencies listed. • values.yaml: Pod replicas (default 3), resource requests and limits (CPU 250m, memory 512Mi), container image registry URL, image tag, container port (8080), environment variables. KUBERNETES TEMPLATE FILES INCLUDED: • Deployment.yaml: Pod security context enforcement (runAsNonRoot: true, readOnlyRootFilesystem: true). Liveness probe configured (15 second interval). Readiness probe configured (10 second interval). Graceful shutdown period (terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 30 seconds). • Service.yaml: Service type ClusterIP for internal pod-to-pod communication. Optional LoadBalancer type for external access (recommend placement behind ingress controller). • ServiceAccount.yaml: Limited RBAC role with minimum required permissions. Role restricted to reading ConfigMaps within namespace only. • NetworkPolicy.yaml: Ingress traffic allowed from ingress-controller only. Egress traffic limited to specific DNS server plus external API endpoints only (whitelist security approach). • PodDisruptionBudget.yaml: Ensures minimum 2 pods always available during voluntary disruptions (cluster upgrades, node drains). SECURITY HARDENING MEASURES APPLIED: ✓ Pod Security Policy enforced (restricted PSP profile). ✓ Secrets encrypted at rest (ETCD encryption configured). ✓ Network policy limits blast radius (east-west traffic restricted by default). ✓ Resource limits prevent resource exhaustion attacks. ✓ No privileged containers allowed. No root user execution. ✓ Read-only root filesystem enforces immutability. VALIDATION & TESTING: • helm lint: passes all linting checks. • helm template: renders without errors. • Deployed to test cluster: successful pod startup. • helm test: smoke tests pass and verify connectivity.
About this skill
Your chart renders with the default values, then breaks when someone disables a feature or upgrades an existing release. Build or repair Helm charts with explicit configuration contracts, stable selectors, controlled dependencies, and validation that distinguishes rendered YAML from a working deployment.
What it does
- Designs values and JSON Schema validation that catch invalid combinations without swallowing intentional
falseor0values. - Builds reusable naming and label helpers while keeping workload selectors stable across upgrades.
- Handles autoscaling, probes, resources, configuration checksums, and optional resources as connected deployment decisions.
- Reviews RBAC, service accounts, pod security, secrets, and NetworkPolicies against the workload's actual requirements.
- Controls subchart versions, aliases, conditions, and lock files for reproducible dependency resolution.
- Produces a focused validation matrix covering defaults, overrides, disabled features, and upgrade-sensitive changes.
What you get
Chart files or targeted patches, documented assumptions, and exact validation commands. Reviews prioritize concrete failure modes and report what was inspected, rendered, or tested separately.
Best for
Platform engineers, application teams packaging services for Kubernetes, and maintainers troubleshooting Helm templates or preparing chart upgrades.
SKILL.md preview
---
name: helm-chart-creation-and-upgrade-safety
description: >-
Create, repair, and audit Helm charts using explicit values contracts, stable resource identity, dependency locks, and a render-and-upgrade validation matrix. Use when the user says "create a Helm chart for this service", "my chart works only with default values", "Helm keeps ignoring my false setting", "fix this template error", "review this chart before upgrading", "add autoscaling to my chart", "harden our chart", or "manage these subchart dependencies".
---
# Helm Chart Creation and Upgrade Safety
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