Image list build failure due to missing Helm chart dependencies

When you create a Replicated release, the platform automatically renders your Helm chart to extract the list of container images. This image list is required for:

  • Airgap bundle generation - Pre-packaging images for offline installations
  • Security Center - Vulnerability scanning and image analysis

If the chart cannot be rendered, image extraction fails and downstream processes break.

Error Symptom

failed to list images: failed to find images within release: 
failed to extract images from helm charts for helm-only release: 
failed to extract helm chart <name>: failed to render chart <name>: 
failed to render chart with helm v3 chart=<name>, release=<name>: 
failed to render chart with any k0s version: 
failed dependency check: found in Chart.yaml, but missing in charts/ directory: replicated

Root Cause

The error found in Chart.yaml, but missing in charts/ directory: replicated indicates that Helm expects to find a dependency but cannot locate it during the chart load process.

Common cause: Your .helmignore file contains an incorrect exclusion pattern that removes the Replicated SDK subchart during packaging.

In one customer case, the .helmignore file contained this line:

*/replicated

This pattern excludes any directory named replicated at any depth in the chart structure. When the Replicated SDK is installed as a subchart in charts/replicated/, this pattern causes Helm to skip it entirely during loading.

The result: Helm sees replicated declared in Chart.yaml dependencies but cannot find the actual chart files in charts/replicated/ because .helmignore removed them.

Solution

Check your .helmignore file for patterns that might exclude the Replicated SDK or other required dependencies.

Remove or correct any overly broad exclusion.

Why This Matters

Without a valid image list, your release cannot:

  • Generate airgap bundles
  • Display vulnerability scan results in Security Center

Even if your application installs successfully in online environments, customers attempting airgap installations will encounter missing images.