chart-releaser

A CI tool to automate Helm Chart updates for new application releases.

This tool was developed to help make maintaining Helm Chart repos more sane. It works for a single Chart, or for repos holding multiple charts. By integrating the tool into CI pipelines, a new application release can trigger an automatic update to its corresponding Chart to update the appVersion and Chart version.

Note: This tool is still in its infancy so there may be bugs, missing features, non-ergonomic defaults, etc. If you have any questions, notice any issues, or have suggestions for improvement, open an issue or open a PR - all contributions are welcome.

Getting Started

Requirements

The latest release is available from the releases page. All tags generate a release with pre-compiled binaries attached as assets.

A local installation of git is and a GITHUB_TOKEN set as an environment variable is required.

Running

chart-releaser can be run from the command line with no argument or with the --help flag to print usage info. The main entrypoint for kicking of a Chart update is through the chart-releaser update command.

It looks for a .chartreleaser.yml configuration file in the directory which it is run out of and executes an update based on those config options.

chart-releaser update

Docker

docker pull vaporio/chart-releaser

Example usage by mounting the path of a repo with .chartreleaser.yml to the contain:

docker run -e GITHUB_TOKEN=$GITHUB_TOKEN --rm -v $(pwd):/data test update --dry-run

Configuring

chart-releaser is configured on a per-project basis, which usually translates to one config file for a repository. The config file should live in the repository for the application, not for the repository for its Helm Chart (assuming they are different).

The configuration is defined in a YAML-formatted file named.chartreleaser.yml.

Below is a description and examples of the different config options that are currently supported.

v1

These configuration options apply to config files following the v1 schema, as denoted by the version: v1 field in the configuration.

Note that in the tables below, a default value of - indicates no default and that the configuration is required.

Top Level Keys

Top-level keys for a chart-releaser configuration.

Key	Description	Value
version	The version of the configuration scheme. This must be v1 for v1 configs.	-
chart	Defines where the Helm Chart exists for the configured project.	Chart
publish	Defines how Chart/file updates should be published to the chart repo.	Publish
commit	Defines the author of the commit(s) made to the chart repo.	Commit
release	Defines behavior for how application releases are targeted and they affect the Chart version.	Release
extras	Defines any non-Chart.yaml files that should also be updated.	Extras

Chart

Defines where the Helm Chart exists for the configured project.

Key	Description	Default
name	The name of the Chart. This is used as metadata for the tool, including template contexts.	-
repo	The name of the repository holding the Chart for the project. This is required. It should follow the format {{ RepoType }}/{{ Owner }}/{{ Name }}. The currently supported repo types are: github.com.	-
path	The sub-path to the Chart.yaml file in the repository. If this is empty, it assumes the Chart.yaml is in the root of the specified repository. If this is does not contain /Chart.yaml at the end of the path, it is added automatically.	""

Publish

Defines how Chart/file updates should be published to the chart repo.

This defines a commit and pr key. If neither are specified, it defaults to "pr". Only one of the two keys may be specified at once.

commit commits directly to the configured branch, but will not open a PR. pr will commit to the configured branch and open a PR for the changes.

Key	Description	Default
commit.branch	The name of the branch to commit to.	master
commit.base	The base ref to create the new branch from.	master
pr.branch_template	The name of the branch to commit to. This may be a template populated by update context.	chartreleaser/{{ .Chart.Name }}/{{ .Chart.NewVersion }}
pr.base	The base ref to create the new branch from.	master
pr.title_template	The title to use for the pull request.	see: templates.go
pr.body_template	The pull request body comment.	see: templates.go

Commit

Defines the author of the commit(s) made to the chart repo.

Key	Description	Default
author.name	Name of the commit author for published updates.	The git user name from gitconfig
author.email	Email of the commit author for published updates.	The git user email from gitconfig
templates.update	The template for the commit message to use on update.	see: templates.go

Release

Defines behavior for how application releases are targeted and they affect the Chart version.

Key	Description	Default
matches	A list of regex-compilable strings defining constraints that an application tag needs to meet to be eligible for chart-releaser update.	[]
ignores	A list of regex-compilable strings defining constraints which prevent an application tag from being eligible for chart-releaser update.	[]
strategy	The release strategy to use. See below for supported strategies.	default

Strategies

The supported release strategies are:

• default: Bump the patch version of the Chart for any non-prerelease update to the app version. If the app has a prerelease bump, the chart version either gets a new prerelease suffix, or gets an existing prerelease suffix bumped.
• major: Bump the major version of the Chart for any update to the app version.
• minor: Bump the minor version of the Chart for any update to the app version.
• patch: Bump the patch version of the Chart for any update to the app version.

Extras

Defines any non-Chart.yaml files that should also be updated.

Extras as specified as a list, e.g.

extras:
  - path: some/path/to/README.md
    updates:
      - search: foo
        replace: bar
        limit: 1

Key	Description	Default
path	The path to the file to update, starting from the root of the charts repository.	""
updates[*].search	A regex-compilable string defining the pattern that should be matched up for replacement within the file.	-
updates[*].replace	The value to replace the found matches. This may be a template, which gets rendered with the update context.	-
updates[*].limit	Limit the number of replaces to be performed in the file. A value of 0 indicates that there is no limit and all found matches should be replaced.	0

Context

The v1 config schema update context is used to render various templates in the configuration. See context.go for details on the fields provided by the context.

License

chart-releaser is released under the MIT License.