Skip to content

Renovate Package Maintenance

This page describes how the Big Bang team internally processes a Renovate-triggered package update, from issue to merged release — it’s for CODEOWNERS and contributors working an update, not for deploying or configuring Renovate in your own environment. For that, see Renovate.

Most Big Bang-maintained Helm charts wrap an upstream vendor chart using the passthrough pattern (check Chart.yaml for an upstream-aliased dependency to confirm). The steps below cover what to do at each stage:

%%{init: {'theme': 'base', 'themeVariables': {'fontSize': '18px', 'primaryColor': '#00758f', 'primaryTextColor': '#ffffff', 'primaryBorderColor': '#004d5c', 'lineColor': '#00758f'}, 'flowchart': {'curve': 'basis'}}}%%
flowchart LR
  A((Renovate opens an issue)) --> B(Open your package MR)
  B --> C(Test your changes: deploy & verify)
  C -.->|Pipeline or test fails: fix and retry| C
  C --> D(Assign CODEOWNERS & merge once approved)
  D --> E(Big Bang MR opens automatically)
  E --> F((Issue closed))

Preparing your package update

Every package should have a docs/DEVELOPMENT_MAINTENANCE.md file — read it before starting, since it documents any local deviations from the upstream chart or values that this specific package needs. CODEOWNERS should use the same file when reviewing, and update it if a step is no longer accurate.

Finishing your package merge request

Before taking your package MR out of Draft:

  • Note any SKIP UPGRADE/skip-bb-mr pipeline items in the MR, with justification — see the CI Workflow doc.
  • Write the ## Upgrade Notices section for someone downstream who wasn’t in the room — avoid internal team shorthand or CI-specific notes. This section exists for changes that require a downstream user to take action — a renamed value or a moved template, for example.
  • Remove SKIP UPDATE CHECK from the MR title and confirm a chart update check pipeline stage has run.

After your package MR merges

Confirm the main and tag pipelines both pass — reach out to CODEOWNERS or anchors if not.

The automatic Big Bang merge request

Once your package’s tag pipeline succeeds, bigbang-bot opens a separate, second merge request in the main Big Bang repository. Link it to your issue with Closes <issue URL>, confirm its pipeline passes, take it out of Draft, and assign anchors and Big Bang codeowners as reviewers.