Getting Git Commit Statuses for a HelmRelease from an OCIRepository

[gilberthl-mh]

Hello all!

I'm running into an issue trying to get git commit statuses being sent for a HelmRelease that gets updated, where the underlying chart comes from an OCIRepository.

I successfully got statuses being sent to our repository for other sources, but want to them to happen for a Helm Release when the values get updated in the source repository.

I am using the following manifests for the alert and provider:

apiVersion: notification.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1beta3
kind: Provider
metadata:
  name: github-status
  namespace: flux-system
spec:
  type: github
  address: <GITHUB_REPO>
  secretRef:
    name: flux-system
---
apiVersion: notification.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1beta3
kind: Alert
metadata:
  name: github-status
  namespace: flux-system
spec:
  providerRef:
    name: github-status
  eventSources:
    - kind: Kustomization
      name: "*"
      namespace: "<NAMESPACE>"
    - kind: HelmRelease
      name: "*"
      namespace: "<NAMESPACE>"

And the HelmRelease configuration is here:

apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1beta2
kind: OCIRepository
metadata:
  name: <OCI_NAME>
  namespace: <NAMESPACE>
spec:
  provider: aws
  interval: 1m
  url: <OCI_URL>
  ref:
    tag: <TAG>
---
apiVersion: helm.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v2
kind: HelmRelease
metadata:
  name: <HELM_RELEASE_NAME>
  namespace: <NAMESPACE>
spec:
  # ...

When I make an update to the repository, I get the following error:

{
  "level": "error",
  "ts": "2025-10-23T11:54:07.463Z",
  "logger": "event-server",
  "msg": "failed to send notification",
  "eventInvolvedObject": {
    "kind": "HelmRelease",
    "namespace": "<NAMESPACE>",
    "name": "<NAME>",
    "uid": "<UID>",
    "apiVersion": "helm.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v2",
    "resourceVersion": "40131005"
  },
  "alert": {
    "name": "github-status",
    "namespace": "flux-system",
    "providerName": "github-status"
  },
  "error": "failed to extract commit hash from '<REVISION>' revision"
}

I've updated the components in the FluxInstance so it's on version 2.7.x and that has the updates that allow this to work: #5148

But I stumped as to get it to work for my use case.

Apologies is I've missed something obvious. Many thanks.

[gilberthl-mh]

I have a potential workaround where I will use a custom webhook to get the config digest from an event and mark the commit that way, but wondering if there's a way that tags the config commit for a Helm Release in the git repo.

[stefanprodan]

A HelmRelease is not meant to update the Git status, helm-controller has no knowledge of Git, its source is always a Helm chart. The right way to do this, is to enable wait: true in the Flux Kustomization that applies the HelmRelease. The commit status set by kustomize-controller will tell you that the HelmRelease was upgraded as a result of a new commit.

[gilberthl-mh]

Thanks @stefanprodan, I was using the raw values in the HelmRelease and editing the values of that and expecting the config change of the values there to produce a status change.

I'll move to using the values in the config map.

I do see in the HelmRelease status within the History there is a Config Digest and I was wondering if that could have been surfaced, as it's the config value changes that I am interested in.

[stefanprodan]

No need to move the values to a ConfigMap, the in-line ones have the same effect. The computed Config Digest from the status has nothing to do with Git, so it can not be used for commit status updates.

[gilberthl-mh]

Ah good point, I misunderstood which Kustomization I would be listening out for, I will use that then. Thank you for you help 🙂

[stefanprodan]

The Flux Kustomization that applies the HelmRelease is the one that has the Git commit info. So when you change the HelmRelease.spec.values in Git, once that is reconciled on the cluster, kustomize-controller will emit an event annotated with the Git SHA for notification-controller to be able to update that commit status.