Test and Lint Helm Charts

Intermediate12 min

Validate chart structure, lint templates, run test pods, and catch errors before deploying charts to production clusters.

Prerequisites

-Helm 3 installed
-A Helm chart to test

Steps

Lint the chart for errors

Check the chart for common issues and best-practice violations.

$ helm lint myapp/ --strict

The --strict flag treats warnings as errors, useful for CI pipelines.

Render templates without installing

Generate the Kubernetes manifests to verify template rendering.

$ helm template test-release myapp/ -f values-production.yaml --validate

The --validate flag requires a connection to a Kubernetes cluster to validate resource schemas.

Dry-run against the cluster API

Simulate an install to catch server-side validation errors.

$ helm install test-release myapp/ --dry-run --debug --namespace test

Run chart tests

Execute test pods defined in the chart's templates/tests/ directory.

$ helm test my-release --namespace production --timeout 5m

Chart tests are Pods with the 'helm.sh/hook: test' annotation. They run to completion and report pass/fail.

Validate with kubeconform

Check rendered manifests against Kubernetes JSON schemas.

$ helm template myapp/ | kubeconform -strict -summary -output json

Full Script

full-script.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Helm Chart Testing Pipeline
set -euo pipefail

CHART_DIR=${1:?"Usage: $0 <chart-directory>"}

echo "=== Step 1: Lint ==="
helm lint "$CHART_DIR" --strict
echo "Lint passed"

echo ""
echo "=== Step 2: Template Rendering ==="
helm template test-release "$CHART_DIR" > /tmp/rendered-manifests.yaml
echo "Rendered $(grep -c '^kind:' /tmp/rendered-manifests.yaml) resources"

echo ""
echo "=== Step 3: Schema Validation ==="
if command -v kubeconform &> /dev/null; then
  helm template test-release "$CHART_DIR" | kubeconform -strict -summary
  echo "Schema validation passed"
else
  echo "kubeconform not installed, skipping schema validation"
fi

echo ""
echo "=== Step 4: Dry Run ==="
helm install test-release "$CHART_DIR" --dry-run --debug 2>&1 | tail -5
echo "Dry run passed"

echo ""
echo "All tests passed for $CHART_DIR"

FAQ

Discussion

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#!/bin/bash # Helm Chart Testing Pipeline set -euo pipefail CHART_DIR=${1:?"Usage: $0 <chart-directory>"} echo "=== Step 1: Lint ===" helm lint "$CHART_DIR" --strict echo "Lint passed" echo "" echo "=== Step 2: Template Rendering ===" helm template test-release "$CHART_DIR" > /tmp/rendered-manifests.yaml echo "Rendered $(grep -c '^kind:' /tmp/rendered-manifests.yaml) resources" echo "" echo "=== Step 3: Schema Validation ===" if command -v kubeconform &> /dev/null; then helm template test-release "$CHART_DIR" | kubeconform -strict -summary echo "Schema validation passed" else echo "kubeconform not installed, skipping schema validation" fi echo "" echo "=== Step 4: Dry Run ===" helm install test-release "$CHART_DIR" --dry-run --debug 2>&1 | tail -5 echo "Dry run passed" echo "" echo "All tests passed for $CHART_DIR"