release-helm.yml

Release Helm charts using chart-releaser-action. Automatically creates GitHub releases and publishes chart packages when chart versions are updated.

Inputs

Input	Type	Description	Required	Default
CHARTS_DIR	string	Directory containing the Helm charts	No	./charts
HELM_REPOS	string	Helm repositories to add (name=url, comma-separated)	No	-
REGISTRY	string	OCI registry to push charts to (e.g. ghcr.io, registry.gitlab.com)	No	ghcr.io
REPOSITORY	string	Repository path in the OCI registry (defaults to github.repository)	No	-
REGISTRY_USERNAME	string	Username for OCI registry authentication (uses github.actor automatically for ghcr.io)	No	-
REGISTRY_PASSWORD	string	Password for OCI registry authentication (uses GITHUB_TOKEN automatically for ghcr.io)	No	-
RUNS_ON	string	Runner labels as JSON array (e.g., '["ubuntu-24.04"]' or '["self-hosted", "linux"]')	No	["ubuntu-24.04"]

Permissions

Scope	Access	Description
contents	write	Create releases, tags, and publish chart packages
packages	write	Push charts to OCI registry (ghcr.io)

Notes

• Uses helm/chart-releaser-action to automatically detect chart version changes and create corresponding GitHub releases.
• Only creates releases for charts that have version bumps compared to the previous release.
• Charts are published to the OCI registry (ghcr.io/<owner>/<repo>) in addition to GitHub releases.
• If HELM_REPOS is provided, adds external repositories before packaging (useful for charts with dependencies).
• Requires chart versions to follow semantic versioning.
• Automatically configures Git user as github-actions[bot] for any commits made during the release process.
• Charts can be pulled using: helm pull oci://ghcr.io/<owner>/<repo>/<chart-name> --version <version>

Examples

The examples show releasing to the default GitHub Packages (ghcr.io) OCI registry, publishing to a custom registry with explicit credentials, and a minimal setup that relies entirely on workflow defaults.

Simple example

HELM_REPOS pre-registers external repositories so that chart dependencies can be resolved at packaging time. Charts are released both as GitHub Release assets and pushed to the OCI registry (ghcr.io/<owner>/<repo>).

jobs:
  release-charts:
    uses: this-is-tobi/github-workflows/.github/workflows/release-helm.yml@v0
    with:
      CHARTS_DIR: ./charts
      HELM_REPOS: "bitnami=https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami,jetstack=https://charts.jetstack.io"

Custom OCI registry

To push charts to a registry other than ghcr.io, supply credentials explicitly:

jobs:
  release-charts:
    uses: this-is-tobi/github-workflows/.github/workflows/release-helm.yml@v0
    with:
      CHARTS_DIR: ./charts
      REGISTRY: registry.example.com
      REPOSITORY: my-org/helm-charts
      REGISTRY_USERNAME: ${{ vars.REGISTRY_USERNAME }}
      REGISTRY_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.REGISTRY_PASSWORD }}

Minimal (GitHub Packages only)

When all defaults are acceptable (ghcr.io, charts in ./charts, no external repos):

jobs:
  release-charts:
    uses: this-is-tobi/github-workflows/.github/workflows/release-helm.yml@v0
    permissions:
      contents: write
      packages: write