helm lint: Command Reference for CI/CD

Validate a chart before it ever reaches a cluster.

helm lint examines a chart for structural problems and best-practice violations. It is the cheapest first gate in a chart pipeline, catching errors before any render or deploy. This reference covers its flags and CI use.

Common flags and usage

• lint <chart-dir>: check a chart for issues
• --strict: treat warnings as errors (fail the build on warnings)
• -f values.yaml / --set k=v: lint with specific values
• --quiet: only surface errors, suppress info messages
• Exits non-zero when it finds errors (or warnings under --strict)

Example

helm lint ./charts/web --strict \
  -f ./charts/web/values-prod.yaml

In CI

Run lint --strict as an early PR gate so chart problems fail fast and cheap, before helm template or any deploy. Lint with the same values file the deploy uses so value-dependent template errors surface here rather than at install time.

Key takeaways

• lint is the cheapest chart gate; run it first in the pipeline.
• --strict turns warnings into build failures.
• Lint with the deploy values file to catch value-dependent errors early.

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