7.1Why Helm Charts Need Their Own Tests

Helm charts add a templating layer on top of Kubernetes manifests. This introduces a new class of bugs: a template might produce valid YAML for one set of values but invalid YAML for another. A conditional block might silently omit a critical resource. A helper template might generate incorrect labels that break service discovery.

Testing Helm charts means validating not just the chart itself, but the rendered output across all supported value combinations.