Helm chart versioning
The base Helm charts — such as chart-java and chart-nodejs — are semantically versioned and published to Azure Container Registry as OCI artifacts.
How base charts are released
Base charts use Release Drafter, as described in the
release automation section: merging a pull request
creates or updates a draft release, and publishing the release tags the
repository (for example v6.1.0). The tag triggers the release build, which
lints and tests the chart and publishes it to ACR on success.
Consume a pinned version
Your application chart declares the base chart as a dependency with an exact
version in Chart.yaml:
apiVersion: v2
name: my-app
version: 0.1.0
dependencies:
- name: java
version: 6.1.0
repository: 'oci://hmctsprod.azurecr.io/helm'
As with every other shared dependency, pin an exact version — your deployment then only changes when you choose to update it.
Upgrade path
The HMCTS global Renovate configuration understands
Chart.yaml files and the HMCTS chart registries, so new base chart versions
arrive as Renovate pull requests. When Renovate updates a chart dependency it
also bumps your own chart’s patch version, keeping your chart version moving
with its contents.
Major base chart versions can change values structure or deployment behaviour — review the base chart’s release notes before merging a major update, and verify the change on a pull request deployment before it reaches production.