Cloud / HELM Interview Questions
How do you create custom Helm plugins and when should you use them?
Helm plugins extend Helm CLI functionality with custom commands. They are written as scripts (bash, Python, Go) and placed in $(helm home)/plugins/.
Basic plugin structure:
~/.local/share/helm/plugins/myplugin/
plugin.yaml # Plugin metadata
myplugin.sh # Executable script
README.md # Documentation
LICENSE
plugin.yaml example:
name: "myplugin"
version: "0.1.0"
usage: "Run custom pre-deployment validation"
description: |-
This plugin validates Helm charts against custom rules before deployment.
command: "$HELM_PLUGIN_DIR/validate.sh"
ignoreFlags: false
useTunnel: false
hooks:
install: "echo Installing myplugin"
update: "echo Updating myplugin"
Plugin script example (validate.sh):
#!/bin/bash
set -e
CHART_PATH=$1
NAMESPACE=$2
echo "Running custom validations..."
# Check for disallowed image registries
if grep -r "image:.*docker.io" $CHART_PATH/templates/; then
echo "ERROR: Docker Hub images not allowed in production"
exit 1
fi
# Validate all resources have resource limits
if ! grep -r "resources:" $CHART_PATH/templates/; then
echo "ERROR: Missing resource limits"
exit 1
fi
echo "All validations passed"
exit 0
Installing and using plugins:
helm plugin install https://github.com/myorg/helm-myplugin
helm myplugin validate ./mychart production
helm plugin list
helm plugin update myplugin
helm plugin uninstall myplugin
Popular community plugins:
- helm-diff - Show diff between releases
- helm-secrets - Manage encrypted secrets
- helm-unittest - Unit testing for charts
- helm-github - Deploy from GitHub releases
- helm-schema-gen - Generate JSON Schema from values.yaml
When to create plugins: Custom validation rules, integration with internal tooling, complex multi-step workflows, custom templating engines, generating documentation, or auditing deployments.
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