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Consider consolidating Helm chart distribution to OCI-only (drop GitHub Pages) #326

@WentingWu666666

Description

@WentingWu666666

Summary

Simplify the Helm chart release pipeline by consolidating distribution to OCI-only and dropping the GitHub Pages-based Helm repository.

Current State

The release workflow (release_images.yml) publishes the Helm chart to two distribution channels:

  1. OCI registry (GHCR) via helm push ... oci://ghcr.io/documentdb/...
  2. GitHub Pages via the repair_helm_pages_release.yml reusable workflow (publishes to the gh-pages branch with index.yaml)

Problem

Maintaining two distribution channels adds complexity:

  • repair_helm_pages_release.yml is a 300+ line workflow dedicated to rebuilding/merging index.yaml and publishing to gh-pages
  • The gh-pages branch must be maintained alongside the OCI registry
  • Any issues with index.yaml require manual repair workflows
  • OCI is the modern standard for Helm chart distribution (supported since Helm 3.8, which is 3+ years old)

Proposal

  • Drop the GitHub Pages-based Helm repository and consolidate to OCI-only distribution
  • Remove repair_helm_pages_release.yml and the publish-helm-pages job from release_images.yml
  • Update documentation (README, install guides) to use OCI-based install commands exclusively:
    helm install documentdb oci://ghcr.io/documentdb/documentdb-operator --version <version>

Tradeoff

  • Users lose helm repo add + helm search repo discoverability (must know the OCI URL)
  • Requires Helm 3.8+ (released March 2022, widely adopted)
  • Significantly simplifies the release pipeline

Note

The OCI URL and install command should be prominently documented in the README to compensate for the loss of helm search discoverability.

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