Snapshot a Helm Chart

Generate a rendered image of a Helm chart from the command line with the Kanvas Snapshot Helm plugin, and receive it by URL or email.
Tags:
Categories:

The Kanvas Snapshot Helm plugin renders a Helm chart as a Kanvas design image from your terminal. Use it to see what a chart deploys before you install it, or to put a picture of a chart in a review, a ticket, or a README. It needs no repository, no cluster, and no Layer5 Cloud account.

You give the plugin the URL of a packaged chart. The plugin imports the chart as a design, starts a render, and then prints the image URL or emails you when the image is ready.

  • Helm installed on your machine.
  • A packaged chart (.tgz) at a URL that the snapshot service can download without credentials. The plugin submits the value of -f as a URL, so a local file path is not a supported input.
  • For email delivery, an address in lowercase.
helm plugin install https://github.com/meshery/helm-kanvas-snapshot

The install downloads a prebuilt binary for your platform. Confirm the install and update it later with:

helm plugin list
helm plugin update helm-kanvas-snapshot

The list shows the plugin as helm-kanvas-snapshot. Helm runs a plugin by its name, so the command is helm helm-kanvas-snapshot.

helm helm-kanvas-snapshot -f <chart-url> [--name <name>] [-e <email>]

For example:

helm helm-kanvas-snapshot -f https://meshery.github.io/meshery.io/charts/meshery-v1.0.20.tgz --name meshery-chart
FlagRequiredBehavior
-f, --fileYesURL of the packaged chart.
--nameNoName of the design that the plugin creates. Without it, the plugin uses the file name without its extension and prints a warning that it did.
-e, --emailNoEmail address to notify when the snapshot is ready. The plugin rejects any address that contains uppercase letters or does not look like an address, and exits with an error.
  1. The plugin imports the chart as a saved design and prints Successfully created Meshery design. ID: <id>.
  2. The plugin starts the rendering workflow.
  3. The plugin prints the result and exits.

Without --email, the plugin prints the snapshot URL. The image takes three to five minutes to appear at that URL, so an immediate request can return nothing. With --email, the plugin prints a confirmation and the service emails you when the snapshot is ready.

The plugin ships with Layer5’s service credentials, so it works without signing in. That has three consequences:

  • The service downloads your chart from the URL you give. Use only a chart that you are willing to expose to that service.
  • The image sits at a public URL named after the design id. Anyone who has the URL can open it.
  • The plugin saves the design with the service’s credentials, not under a Layer5 Cloud account of yours. To work on a chart as your own design, import it into Kanvas instead. See Import and Merge Designs.

The plugin exits with status 1 and prints an error code.

CodeMeaning
kanvas-snapshot-900The chart URI is invalid.
kanvas-snapshot-901The plugin could not create the design.
kanvas-snapshot-902The plugin could not start the render.
kanvas-snapshot-903An HTTP request failed.
kanvas-snapshot-905A response could not be decoded.
kanvas-snapshot-906A request returned an unexpected status. The message carries the status and the response body.
kanvas-snapshot-907A required field is missing.
kanvas-snapshot-908The email address is not valid.
kanvas-snapshot-909GitHub rejected the request to start the render with a 401 or 403 status.

If the image never appears, check that the chart URL opens in a browser without signing in, then run the command again. For pull request snapshots, see Visualize Pull Requests with Kanvas Snapshot.

Related Reading

Last modified October 15, 2026: docs(kanvas): snapshots - pull request snapshots, GitHub App setup, action inputs, Helm plugin (464c201c81d)