7.3Linting: The First Gate

helm lint catches structural issues in your chart before you render or deploy anything:

# Basic lint
helm lint ./charts/myapp/

# Lint with specific values (catches issues with value-dependent templates)
helm lint ./charts/myapp/ --values values-production.yaml

# Lint with strict mode (warnings become errors)
helm lint ./charts/myapp/ --strict

# Common issues helm lint catches:
# - Missing Chart.yaml required fields
# - Template syntax errors (unclosed {{ }})
# - Missing values referenced in templates
# - Deprecated API versions

Chart.yaml Best Practices

# Chart.yaml
apiVersion: v2
name: myapp
description: A Helm chart for the MyApp service
type: application
version: 1.5.0          # Chart version (SemVer)
appVersion: "2.3.1"     # Application version
maintainers:
  - name: Platform Team
    email: platform@example.com
dependencies:
  - name: postgresql
    version: "13.x"
    repository: https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
    condition: postgresql.enabled