Show HN: Gitlab CI/CD and Helm Deploy on Minikube (No Runner Needed)

4 months ago 12

This is a survival-ready infrastructure demo — showing how to deploy an app to Kubernetes using Helm, without relying on paid services or GitLab Runner.

It’s designed for:

Freelancers who want to prove they can deploy even without budget
DevOps engineers building credibility via GitHub
Clients looking for real-world deploy logic, not just templates

Kubernetes (Minikube, K3s, or any cluster)
Helm 3
GitLab CI/CD (optional, realistic pipeline included)
ConfigMap, Secrets, Environments separation (mocked)

🚀 Deployment (Manual Mode)

No GitLab Runner? No problem. You can test the whole thing manually.

2. Create Static HTML ConfigMap

kubectl create configmap basic-html --from-file=app/index.html

helm upgrade --install basic-app helm-chart/basic-app --values environments/dev/values.yaml

minikube service basic-app

Included .gitlab-ci.yml with real stages:

stages: - plan - lint - deploy - validate - cleanup

This pipeline simulates a full flow: Helm lint, deploy, validation, and optional cleanup.

You can run this CI later with a GitLab Kubernetes runner.

You’ll find a sample:

secrets/mock-secrets.yaml

This shows awareness of:

Secret separation from chart
Security practices even in simple pipelines

🧭 Environment-Specific Values

Supports Dev & Prod overrides:

environments/dev/values.yaml environments/prod/values.yaml

You can see the full flow here:

Path Description

app/	Static HTML content
helm-chart/	Helm chart with templates
environments/	Per-environment Helm values
secrets/	Mock secrets (optional use)
.gitlab-ci.yml	Multi-stage pipeline (manual-ready)
demo.gif	Optional visual confirmation