Add contributing guide

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: barckcode

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+# Contributing Guide
+
+This guide explains how to add new charts and release updates.
+
+## Adding a New Chart
+
+### 1. Create the chart structure
+
+```bash
+mkdir -p charts/<chart-name>/templates
+```
+
+### 2. Required files
+
+```
+charts/<chart-name>/
+├── Chart.yaml      # Chart metadata (name, version, description)
+├── values.yaml     # Default configuration values
+├── README.md       # Chart documentation
+├── .helmignore     # Files to exclude from package
+└── templates/      # Kubernetes manifest templates
+```
+
+### 3. Chart.yaml example
+
+```yaml
+apiVersion: v2
+name: my-chart
+description: Short description of what this chart deploys
+type: application
+version: 0.1.0
+appVersion: "1.0.0"
+```
+
+### 4. Validate your chart
+
+```bash
+# Lint
+helm lint charts/<chart-name>
+
+# Test template rendering
+helm template my-release charts/<chart-name>
+
+# Test with custom values
+helm template my-release charts/<chart-name> -f custom-values.yaml
+```
+
+### 5. Document your chart
+
+Create `charts/<chart-name>/README.md` with:
+- Description
+- Prerequisites
+- Installation command
+- Configuration table (parameters, descriptions, defaults)
+- Usage examples
+
+### 6. Update root README
+
+Add your chart to the table in `README.md`:
+
+```markdown
+| [my-chart](./charts/my-chart) | Short description |
+```
+
+### 7. Submit a Pull Request
+
+```bash
+git checkout -b add-my-chart
+git add charts/<chart-name> README.md
+git commit -m "Add my-chart"
+git push origin add-my-chart
+```
+
+Open a PR against `main`. The CI pipeline will automatically lint and validate your chart.
+
+## Releasing a Chart
+
+### 1. Update the version
+
+Edit `charts/<chart-name>/Chart.yaml`:
+
+```yaml
+version: 0.2.0  # Bump this
+```
+
+### 2. Commit and push
+
+```bash
+git add charts/<chart-name>/Chart.yaml
+git commit -m "Bump <chart-name> to 0.2.0"
+git push origin main
+```
+
+### 3. Create and push the tag
+
+The tag format is `<chart-name>-<version>`:
+
+```bash
+git tag <chart-name>-0.2.0
+git push origin <chart-name>-0.2.0
+```
+
+### 4. Verify the release
+
+The release workflow will:
+1. Validate the tag version matches `Chart.yaml`
+2. Lint and package the chart
+3. Push to GitHub Container Registry
+
+Check the workflow status at: https://github.com/helmcode/helm-charts/actions
+
+Once complete, the chart is available at:
+```
+oci://ghcr.io/helmcode/helm-charts/<chart-name>
+```
+
+## Versioning Rules
+
+- **Single source of truth**: Version is defined ONLY in `Chart.yaml`
+- **Semantic versioning**: Use `MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH`
+  - MAJOR: Breaking changes
+  - MINOR: New features (backwards compatible)
+  - PATCH: Bug fixes
+- **Tag must match**: The release pipeline validates that tag version equals `Chart.yaml` version
+
+## Code Standards
+
+- All code, comments, and documentation in English
+- Follow [Helm best practices](https://helm.sh/docs/chart_best_practices/)
+- Include meaningful defaults in `values.yaml`
+- Document all configurable parameters

README.md

@@ -26,10 +26,10 @@ Each chart may have specific prerequisites. For example, the `rabbitmq` chart re
 
 ## Contributing
 
-1. Fork the repository
-2. Create a feature branch
-3. Make your changes
-4. Submit a pull request
+See [CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md) for detailed instructions on:
+- Adding new charts
+- Releasing chart updates
+- Versioning rules
 
 ## License