Helm OCI

The helm-oci.yaml workflow packages and pushes Helm charts to an OCI registry with semantic versioning.

Basic Usage

name: Build
on:
  push:
    branches: [main, develop]

jobs:
  build:
    uses: slauger/container-gitops-pipeline/.github/workflows/helm-oci.yaml@v1
    with:
      chart_path: '.'
    secrets: inherit

Inputs

Input	Description	Default
`chart_path`	Path to Helm chart directory	`.`
`registry`	OCI registry	`ghcr.io`

Outputs

Output	Description
`version`	Released chart version
`chart`	Full chart OCI reference

Versioning

The workflow automatically updates the version field in Chart.yaml:

Branch	Version Format	Example
`feature/*`	`0.0.0-<sha>`	`0.0.0-abc1234`
`develop`	`0.0.0-<sha>`	`0.0.0-abc1234`
`main`	Semver	`1.2.3`

Chart Repository Structure

my-chart/
├── Chart.yaml
├── values.yaml
├── templates/
│   ├── deployment.yaml
│   ├── service.yaml
│   └── ...
└── .github/
    └── workflows/
        └── release.yaml

Using the Chart

After the workflow pushes the chart, you can use it with Helm:

# Login to registry (if private)
helm registry login ghcr.io -u USERNAME -p TOKEN

# Pull the chart
helm pull oci://ghcr.io/owner/my-chart --version 1.2.3

# Install directly
helm install my-release oci://ghcr.io/owner/my-chart --version 1.2.3

ArgoCD Integration

To use OCI charts with ArgoCD:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: my-app
spec:
  source:
    repoURL: ghcr.io/owner
    chart: my-chart
    targetRevision: 1.2.3

GitOps Integration

For automated GitOps deployments, use gitops-replacer to update chart versions in your GitOps repository.

Add a marker comment in your target file (e.g., umbrella Chart.yaml):

dependencies:
  # gitops-replacer: my-chart
  - name: my-chart
    version: "0.0.0-abc1234"
    repository: oci://ghcr.io/owner

See GitHub App Setup for the full workflow configuration.

Semantic Release

Like the Docker workflow, semantic-release determines versions on the main branch:

Commit Type	Version Bump
`fix:`	Patch (1.0.0 → 1.0.1)
`feat:`	Minor (1.0.0 → 1.1.0)
`feat!:` or `BREAKING CHANGE:`	Major (1.0.0 → 2.0.0)

No .releaserc.json is required.