7.6Integration Testing with chart-testing (ct)

chart-testing (ct) by Helm maintainers validates charts by actually installing them in a cluster. Use it with kind (Kubernetes in Docker) for CI:

# .github/workflows/helm-test.yml
name: Helm Chart Tests
on:
  pull_request:
    paths:
      - 'charts/**'

jobs:
  lint-and-test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Set up Helm
        uses: azure/setup-helm@v4

      - name: Set up chart-testing
        uses: helm/chart-testing-action@v2

      - name: Lint charts
        run: ct lint --all

      - name: Create kind cluster
        uses: helm/kind-action@v1

      - name: Install and test charts
        run: ct install --all

In-Chart Test Hooks

Helm supports test hooks -- pods that run after installation to verify the chart works:

# templates/tests/test-connection.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: "{{ include "myapp.fullname" . }}-test-connection"
  labels:
    {{- include "myapp.labels" . | nindent 4 }}
  annotations:
    "helm.sh/hook": test
    "helm.sh/hook-delete-policy": hook-succeeded
spec:
  containers:
    - name: wget
      image: busybox:1.36
      command: ['wget']
      args: ['{{ include "myapp.fullname" . }}:{{ .Values.service.port }}/healthz']
  restartPolicy: Never

# Run chart tests after installation
helm test myapp --namespace production