title: Hard Chart Patterns status: current last_reviewed: 2026-06-14 ---
The hard charts are where the model earns trust.
Common patterns include:
- CRDs that need lifecycle decisions and upgrade review.
- Webhooks that need certificates, readiness, and post-apply observation.
- Hooks that need routing rather than silent YAML treatment.
- Target facts such as existing Secrets, storage classes, APIs, and node shape.
- Generated runtime state that must be observed, not pre-rendered.
- Large applications where sync, apply, workload readiness, and controller aggregate health can diverge.
Kube-prometheus-stack is the serious-chart exemplar. Consul demonstrates target shape and controller-health residue. Cert-manager and External Secrets demonstrate CRDs, webhooks, and controller-populated fields.
These examples should stay visible because skeptical Helm users will test the model on exactly these cases.