test-helm.yml

Test Helm charts by installing them in a Kubernetes cluster using chart-testing. Creates a temporary Kind cluster and attempts to install charts to verify they work correctly.

Inputs

Input	Type	Description	Required	Default
CT_CONF_PATH	string	Path to the chart-testing configuration file	Yes	-
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	read	Read chart sources for testing

Notes

• Uses helm/chart-testing-action with ct install to test chart installations in a real Kubernetes environment.
• Creates a temporary Kind (Kubernetes in Docker) cluster using helm/kind-action for testing.
• Dynamically selects target branch: uses PR head branch (github.head_ref) when testing pull requests, otherwise falls back to repository default branch.
• Chart-testing configuration file defines which charts to test, dependencies, and installation parameters.
• Requires charts to have valid values.yaml and proper Kubernetes manifests that can be deployed.
• Consider adding integration tests or custom validation scripts in your chart-testing configuration.

Examples

The example shows the most common invocation, pointing to a custom ct.yaml configuration file for chart-testing settings.

Simple example

Points to a ct.yaml that controls which charts are installed, their dependencies, timeouts, and whether a version increment is required. A Kind cluster is created automatically for each run and torn down afterwards.

jobs:
  test-helm-charts:
    uses: this-is-tobi/github-workflows/.github/workflows/test-helm.yml@v0
    with:
      CT_CONF_PATH: .github/ct.yaml

Example chart-testing configuration for testing (.github/ct.yaml):

# See https://github.com/helm/chart-testing/blob/main/doc/ct_install.md
target-branch: main
chart-dirs:
  - charts
helm-extra-args: --timeout 600s
check-version-increment: false  # Usually false for install testing
validate-maintainers: false
excluded-charts:
  - unstable-chart
chart-repos:
  - bitnami=https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami