.github/workflows/validate-charts.yml

@@ -237,6 +237,32 @@ jobs:
       - name: "Check every rendered HTTPRoute against the rendered Services"
         run: ci/run-httproute-match-test.sh
 
+  bump-level:
+    name: "Bump level"
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    # The fourth job that ignores the changed-chart matrix, and the only one
+    # that touches no chart at all: it tests ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh, the
+    # postUpgradeTasks hook that computes a chart's `version:` after Renovate
+    # moved an app version (Gitea #128).
+    #
+    # Why it is a job rather than a review: since #128 the hook takes the bump
+    # level from Renovate's update type, so an app minor becomes a chart minor.
+    # That makes it deciding logic, and its failure mode is silence - a wrong
+    # level is a VALID version string, so the PR goes green, the chart
+    # publishes, and the only symptom is a number that understates what it
+    # ships. Nothing else in this pipeline reads that number.
+    #
+    # It needs no Helm, no cluster and no Python: each case is a throwaway
+    # `git init` under mktemp with one commit plus a dirty Chart.yaml - the
+    # state the hook really runs in, since it reads the base commit - and the
+    # assertion is one `version:` line read back with sed. About a second for
+    # all 49 cases, and it depends on no other job.
+    steps:
+      - name: "Checkout Repository"
+        uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7
+      - name: "Check every bump level of the version-bump hook"
+        run: ci/run-bump-level-test.sh
+
   trivy-config:
     name: "Trivy config ${{ matrix.chart }}"
     needs: detect-changed-charts

CLAUDE.md

@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ Flat layout, one Markdown file per page, page name = file name, links are relati
 | a Renovate rule added or changed | `Renovate` |
 | something broke in a way a rule now prevents | `Lessons-Learned` |
 
-**What does not oblige an edit:** a plain app-version bump. Renovate automerges those continuously and never touches the wiki, which is why chart pages carry no version numbers at all and name `Chart.yaml` as the source of truth. An app update that *does* change values or behaviour is not a plain bump, and the table applies.
+**What does not oblige an edit:** an app-version bump, at any level. Renovate automerges those continuously and never touches the wiki, which is why chart pages carry no version numbers at all and name `Chart.yaml` as the source of truth. Since Gitea #128 **"plain" is mechanically defined instead of being a judgement**: the chart version now states the size of the jump, because `ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh` takes that size from Renovate's update type (app minor → chart minor). An app update that *does* change values or behaviour is not a plain bump and the table applies — but **nothing obliges anyone to go and find out**. That is the deliberate limit of #128, not an oversight: the reading duty was rejected, so the `sonarr` incident in `Lessons-Learned` stays repeatable and a bigger number is the only warning that is given.
 
 Wiki commits follow the same rules as repo commits: no `Co-Authored-By`, no "Generated with Claude Code" footer.
 
@@ -94,11 +94,13 @@ Copy `template-chart/` and replace every `xxx` placeholder — in file names (`t
 
 `Chart.yaml` versions follow `version: <chart-semver>+up<appVersion>` (e.g. `1.4.0+up1.9.2`), with `appVersion` matching the suffix (dashes in the app version are normalized to dots in the suffix). Any push to `main` touching a chart directory publishes that chart, so the version must be bumped in the same change.
 
-Semver conventions for the chart part:
+Semver conventions for the chart part. **The chart jump is the greater of the chart's own classification and the jump of what it ships** (Gitea #128) — a maximum, never a replacement, so a value that becomes required stays a major even under an app patch:
 
-- **Patch**: bug fixes without behavior or values-schema change; plain app-version updates.
-- **Minor**: additive, backward-compatible changes (new optional values with unchanged defaults).
-- **Major**: runtime behavior changes or breaking values changes (e.g. probes, security hardening, computed limits, values that become required).
+- **Patch**: bug fixes without behavior or values-schema change; an app **patch** or digest update.
+- **Minor**: additive, backward-compatible changes (new optional values with unchanged defaults); an app **minor** update.
+- **Major**: runtime behavior changes or breaking values changes (e.g. probes, security hardening, computed limits, values that become required); an app **major** update.
+
+The app half of that is mechanical: `ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh` takes the level from **Renovate's update type**, passed in as `{{{updateType}}}`, and not from comparing `appVersion` — `freesailarr` pins every tag in `values.yaml` and its `appVersion` never moves, so a comparison is blind to exactly the case the rule exists for. Non-semver app versions (CalVer, date tags, four-part and suffixed tags — seven charts) stay at **patch** for a minor, because their second position is a month or a flavour and says nothing about the jump; an app **major** still produces a chart major. **It obliges nobody to read the release notes** — that variant was rejected in #128 — so an app minor that changes a default can still reach `main` unremarked; the number stops understating, that is all it does. See the wiki, `Lessons-Learned`.
 
 App-version updates go through PRs (so the validate and install-test pipelines run), not through the `change-app-version.yml` dispatch workflow (which commits directly to main and bypasses both). For app **major** jumps, update stepwise: first to the last release of the old major line (own PR, merge, publish), then to the newest major.
 
@@ -117,4 +119,4 @@ The binding style guide for all current and future charts lives in **README.md (
 - Resources: requests as values defaults; limits auto-computed by the `_helpers.tpl` helper (`limitFactor` default 3; no CPU limits unless set explicitly).
 - Replicas per workload (explicit `0` allowed) plus a chart-global `scaleDown` flag that overrides them.
 - `icon:` mandatory in every `Chart.yaml`; `helm lint --strict` without findings; CI fixtures under `ci/<chart>/` or a justified exclusion.
-- **Chart dependencies are admissible but expensive** (the former "no dependencies" rule fell with #214; `ytdlp-web-player` was the first to use one, `stalwart` the second, `paperless-ngx` the third). A dependency has to be optional and off by default via `condition:`, and upstream's chart is consumed as it comes — where its defaults fall short of these conventions, that is **documented in our `values.yaml`, never patched**. The price to know before adding the next one: a subchart is invisible to everything downstream that watches Helm release versions, so a new upstream version — a security fix included — reaches a cluster only when the outer chart is republished (Renovate's built-in `helmv3` manager plus `ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh` is the whole safety net, and it belongs in a comment at the pinned version); and every helm command exits 1 while `charts/` is unfilled, which is why `ci/helm-dependencies.sh` runs before lint, package, render and install — including the render test that covers **all** charts on **every** PR. Full rules and the rest of the cost: README, "Chart dependencies".
+- **Chart dependencies are admissible but expensive** (the former "no dependencies" rule fell with #214; `ytdlp-web-player` was the first to use one, `stalwart` the second, `paperless-ngx` the third). A dependency has to be optional and off by default via `condition:`, and upstream's chart is consumed as it comes — where its defaults fall short of these conventions, that is **documented in our `values.yaml`, never patched**. The price to know before adding the next one: a subchart is invisible to everything downstream that watches Helm release versions, so a new upstream version — a security fix included — reaches a cluster only when the outer chart is republished (Renovate's built-in `helmv3` manager plus `ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh` is the whole safety net, and since #128 that republish carries the **subchart's own level** — an upstream minor is a chart minor, which is the only place that jump becomes visible at all; it belongs in a comment at the pinned version); and every helm command exits 1 while `charts/` is unfilled, which is why `ci/helm-dependencies.sh` runs before lint, package, render and install — including the render test that covers **all** charts on **every** PR. Full rules and the rest of the cost: README, "Chart dependencies".

README.md

@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ Every chart has a wiki page of its own — `https://git.jk-dev.de/jlab-cluster/h
   Note: the registry **accepts a re-upload of an already published version** (HTTP 201) and replaces the stored artifact, so a republish of an existing version is still silent — see #160. That is also what makes a manual `workflow_dispatch` of any `publish-<chart>.yml` a harmless way to prove the shared block works.
 - `change-app-version.yml` — manually dispatched app-version bump; the chart must be listed in its `chart-name` choice list.
 - `ci/helm-dependencies.sh <chart-dir>` — not a workflow but the step they all share: fetches a chart's declared dependencies into `charts/`, and returns silently for the charts that declare none (all but three: `ytdlp-web-player`, `stalwart`, `paperless-ngx`). It runs in **seven** places, because every helm command this repo builds on exits 1 while a declared dependency is missing: before lint and package in `validate-charts.yml`, before package in the shared publish block (which is why that block names this script as a prerequisite of its callers — see above), and inside `ci/run-install-test.sh`, `ci/run-quantity-render-test.sh`, `ci/run-selector-match-test.sh`, `ci/run-httproute-match-test.sh` and `ci/run-trivy-config.sh`. See "Chart dependencies" in the style guidelines for what that costs.
-- `validate-charts.yml` — PR pipeline: detects which charts a PR touches and, for exactly those, runs `helm lint --strict`, `helm package`, and a chart-version bump check (`template-chart` is exempt from the version check). PRs without chart changes skip the build matrix. After the build stage, an **install-test** job (the same changed-charts matrix, minus the charts listed in `ci/excluded-charts.txt`) installs each changed chart into an ephemeral [k3d](https://k3d.io) cluster on the runner and requires every workload to become Ready — see below. Both matrices follow the changed chart directories, so a PR that only changes the harness under `ci/` exercises nothing by itself; the Trivy scan has a fixed-sample fallback for that case, the install-test has none — bump the affected chart's patch version to pull it into the matrix, or run the all-charts install-test after the merge. The **resource-quantity render test**, the **selector-match render test** and the **HTTPRoute render test** are the three exceptions to that rule: all of them run over every chart on every PR — see below.
+- `validate-charts.yml` — PR pipeline: detects which charts a PR touches and, for exactly those, runs `helm lint --strict`, `helm package`, and a chart-version bump check (`template-chart` is exempt from the version check). PRs without chart changes skip the build matrix. After the build stage, an **install-test** job (the same changed-charts matrix, minus the charts listed in `ci/excluded-charts.txt`) installs each changed chart into an ephemeral [k3d](https://k3d.io) cluster on the runner and requires every workload to become Ready — see below. Both matrices follow the changed chart directories, so a PR that only changes the harness under `ci/` exercises nothing by itself; the Trivy scan has a fixed-sample fallback for that case, the install-test has none — bump the affected chart's patch version to pull it into the matrix, or run the all-charts install-test after the merge. The **resource-quantity render test**, the **selector-match render test** and the **HTTPRoute render test** are the three exceptions to that rule: all of them run over every chart on every PR — see below. A fourth job, the **bump-level test**, ignores the matrix for a different reason: it tests no chart at all, but the `postUpgradeTasks` hook that computes their versions.
 - `install-test.yml` — reusable workflow (`workflow_call`) holding the install-test **job** itself: the runner-label expression, the pinned `kubectl` with its skew check, `envsubst`, the containerised-job detection, the per-leg k3d cluster and the `freesailarr` VPN credentials. Its one input is a JSON array of chart names; its callers decide *which* charts are tested and whether the job runs at all, never *how*. Two callers: `validate-charts.yml` and `install-test-all-charts.yml`. **It is not copied for the second caller** — a second copy is a second chance to test differently, unnoticed, the same argument that gives `ci/excluded-charts.txt` exactly one parser.
 
   **It stays in this repository, and that is a decision, not an oversight** (Gitea #66, decision 4). It is reusable in form but not in substance: it is welded to the `ci/` fixtures, to the `ci/excluded-charts.txt` parser and to this repository's chart matrix. A building block that only one repository can use is not shared, it is merely moved somewhere else — and moving it would buy nothing while putting a tag between us and a file we change often. `publish-helm-chart.yml` was the opposite case: it takes a chart name and a registry owner and knows nothing about this repository, which is exactly why it could go. This note exists so the question is not asked again in half a year.
@@ -187,6 +187,18 @@ Measured in CI (run 719, the pilot): **30 charts, 4 assertions held**, whole job
 
 The fail path was exercised rather than assumed: a Service renamed in the route, a port the Service does not expose, a port left out entirely, an emptied `parentRefs` with the chart's own guard disabled, an overlay that renders no route, a run with zero assertions, and — for the pairing — both the redirect rule deleted outright and the redirect pointed at a path other than the one stripped; each produced a `FAIL` naming both sides and a non-zero exit.
 
+### Bump-level test (the version-bump hook, every PR)
+
+`ci/run-bump-level-test.sh` (no arguments) holds every case of `ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh` against the version string it writes. Added with Gitea #128, which is what made it necessary: until then the hook was a calculator with one branch, and with the update type coming from Renovate it became the thing that *says how big a change a cluster is being offered* — while the chart version is the only signal anything downstream sees (see "Chart dependencies": Fleet reads our chart version and nothing inside the package).
+
+Its failure mode is the silent kind this section's two rules are about: **a wrong level is a valid version string.** The PR goes green, the chart publishes, and the only symptom is a number that understates what it ships. Nothing in the pipeline reads that number, so nothing but a test can.
+
+A case is not a function call, because the script reads the **base commit** (`git show HEAD:<chart>/Chart.yaml`) *and* the working tree: each of the 49 cases gets a throwaway `git init` under `mktemp -d`, one commit carrying the base `Chart.yaml`, and the new one written over it uncommitted — the state Renovate's `postUpgradeTasks` hook actually runs in. Signing is switched off per command, since this workspace signs through an SSH signer and a throwaway repo has no business invoking it. No Helm, no cluster, no `pyyaml`, no `yq`, no Docker: the fixtures are six-line `Chart.yaml` files written with `printf`, and the assertion is one `version:` line read back with `sed`. The job therefore carries no Helm step and takes about a second.
+
+What the cases cover: each update type, the `freesailarr` shape (an app minor while `appVersion` stands still), all seven non-semver app versions plus the majors that must *not* fall back, the maximum rule in both directions including a stale branch version that must **not** be kept, a missing and an empty and an unknown second argument, and the inputs the script must leave alone — a chart new on the branch, `template-chart`, a `.github/` or `ci/` argument, no argument at all. The full `version:` line is asserted in every case, so the `+up` suffix and its dash-to-dot normalization are covered throughout.
+
+**What it cannot assert, and does not pretend to:** that Renovate passes the update type at all. The hook runs only when the command is allow-listed on the shared instance, which is outside this repository — which is why a *missing* second argument is itself a case here, and why the change that introduced it carries a dry run instead of a claim (see "The version-bump hook").
+
 ### Install-test (PR pipeline stage 2)
 
 For every chart a PR changes, `ci/run-install-test.sh <chart>` runs against a throwaway k3d cluster: it applies the stub `OnePasswordItem` CRD plus the chart's fixtures, `helm install`s the chart with its CI values, and waits for all Deployments/StatefulSets to roll out (per-chart timeout). Since probes and security hardening are active on all workloads, "Ready" means the app actually answers. On failure the job dumps pod descriptions, events and container logs.
@@ -267,9 +279,9 @@ Each chart renders its main image as `<repo>:{{ .Chart.AppVersion }}` — reposi
 
 One rule those overrides share, learned from `searxng` and worth knowing before writing the next one: **a capture group is a claim about how the value is compared.** Renovate's regex versioning parses `major`, `minor`, `patch`, `build` and `revision` with `Number.parseInt` (`modules/versioning/regex/index.js`, `_parse`), so a non-numeric commit hash captured as `build` becomes whatever digits lead it — `9fea41204` is `9`, `777ba8fa4` is `777`, and a hash starting with a letter is `NaN`. Measured on renovate 41.173.1 and 44.48.0, that makes Renovate offer an image pushed *earlier the same day* as an update to a newer one — a downgrade wearing the clothes of a routine date bump, which is exactly what a review waves through and automerge then carries to `main`. Parts of a tag that carry no ordering belong **outside** every group: the anchored pattern still requires them to be there, they simply take no part in the comparison. `prerelease` is not the way out either — it sorts correctly but marks every tag `isStable === false`, which hands the whole chart to `ignoreUnstable`. `freesailarr` has no **app-version** block on purpose — see the images exception above; a block would either duplicate the `helm-values` updates or rewrite an `appVersion` that selects no image. It does carry one `customManagers` block, for `mediathekarr`: that image is pinned by digest because its tags carry no version (`latest` is a 2024 build, `beta` moves), and the built-in `helm-values` manager reads only `repository`/`tag` and skips it (`skipReason: invalid-value`), so the two cannot collide. Digest rules need the same guard as versioning rules and for a sharper reason: while the pin is current, a matching rule and a broken one produce the identical empty result. Verified with two dry-run fixtures — the real digest yields no update, a deliberately stale one yields exactly one `digest` update back to the pinned digest.
 
-A consequence of pinning every tag in `values.yaml`: `ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh` sees an unchanged `appVersion` and bumps the chart **patch**. That holds for all ten images alike, the digest-pinned one included — none of them is special — and it is the intended outcome, since `appVersion` here is the chart's own marker rather than a tracked upstream version.
+A consequence of pinning every tag in `values.yaml`, and the measurement that forced the change in Gitea #128: `ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh` used to see an unchanged `appVersion` and bump the chart **patch** — for all ten images alike, the digest-pinned one included. `appVersion` here is the chart's own marker rather than a tracked upstream version, so a comparison had nothing to read: prowlarr's `2.5.2 → 2.6.5` was an upstream **minor** that arrived as a chart patch. Since #128 the level comes from Renovate's classification instead (`{{{updateType}}}`, the hook's second argument), so a minor among the ten makes a chart minor and a mixed group takes the highest level in it. The `+up` suffix still follows `appVersion` and therefore still stands still.
 
-**An open point this leaves, recorded rather than solved.** That automatic patch is also a classification, and the convention exempts a "plain app-version bump" from the wiki obligation — so an image update that quietly changes a *default* is the one case where nothing reviews it and nothing documents it. It has already happened once: the `sonarr` 4.0.19 bump carried upstream's removal of the hard-coded trusted proxy networks, and it reached `main` unremarked (see [Lessons learned](https://git.jk-dev.de/jlab-cluster/helm-charts/wiki/Lessons-Learned)). Whether the convention should change is a separate decision and deliberately not proposed here.
+**That open point is now decided (Gitea #128), and the decision is deliberately smaller than the problem.** The gap was real: the automatic patch was also a *classification*, and the convention exempts a "plain app-version bump" from the wiki obligation — so an image update that quietly changed a **default** was the one case where nothing reviewed it and nothing documented it. It had already happened: the `sonarr` 4.0.19 bump carried upstream's removal of the hard-coded trusted proxy networks and reached `main` unremarked (see [Lessons learned](https://git.jk-dev.de/jlab-cluster/helm-charts/wiki/Lessons-Learned)). What was decided is **the classification and not a reading duty**: the chart jump follows the app jump, so the number stops understating what it ships. The variant that would have caught that incident at its origin — *a chart minor or major obliges reading the upstream release notes, with the result stated in the PR even when it is "nothing found"* — was **rejected**, and its price is the part that stays: nobody is obliged to look behind the number, so an app minor that changes a default can still reach `main` unremarked. What the bigger number does buy is visibility where a patch has none — Fleet's `fleet.yaml` in `cluster-config` sees only our chart version (see "Chart dependencies"), so a minor is a number other gates can act on. Whether `cluster-config` actually distinguishes update types is **not** visible from this repository; that is the mechanism which makes the number effective, not a claim that it is in use.
 
 Two dependencies are constrained beyond their versioning. **nginx** (the Synapse delegation sidecar) is limited to **even minors** via `allowedVersions`. nginx numbers its release branches by minor — even is stable, odd is mainline — and the chart belongs on stable. Patch updates inside the stable branch still flow through normally. The constraint tolerates a variant suffix (`1.30.4-alpine`) on purpose: docker versioning only ever offers candidates carrying the current tag's suffix, so a suffix-blind constraint would silently freeze nginx the day the sidecar moves to a slimmer base image — a switch to `1.30.4-alpine` that #84 has commissioned a check on — with no error and no warning.
 
@@ -296,13 +308,22 @@ Not managed: `ci/**` (install-test fixtures pin throwaway infrastructure to majo
 
 ### The version-bump hook
 
-Renovate only rewrites `appVersion:` or an image tag; it knows nothing about `version: <chart-semver>+up<app-version>`. Left alone, every chart PR would fail the `build-chart` version check. `ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh <chart-dir>` closes that gap and is wired up as a `postUpgradeTasks` command:
+Renovate only rewrites `appVersion:` or an image tag; it knows nothing about `version: <chart-semver>+up<app-version>`. Left alone, every chart PR would fail the `build-chart` version check. `ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh <chart-dir> [update-type]` closes that gap and is wired up as a `postUpgradeTasks` command. **Since Gitea #128 the chart jump follows the app jump**, which turned the script from a calculator into deciding logic:
 
-- **app major changed** → chart major (`6.0.0` → `7.0.0`), matching "runtime behavior changes" in the semver conventions
-- **anything else** (plain app update, sidecar image) → chart patch
+- **update type `major`** → chart major (`6.0.0` → `7.0.0`), matching "runtime behavior changes" in the semver conventions
+- **update type `minor`** → chart **minor** (`6.0.0` → `6.1.0`) — the part that was missing, and where the incident sat
+- **`patch`, `digest`, `pin`, `pinDigest`** → chart patch
+- **no or unknown update type** → the pre-#128 behaviour: app major changed → chart major, anything else → chart patch
+- **never below what the branch already carries** — the maximum rule below
 - the `+up` suffix is recomputed from the new `appVersion`, dashes normalized to dots
 
-Everything is derived from the base commit, so the script is idempotent across the multiple updates a single Renovate branch can carry.
+**The level comes from Renovate, not from `appVersion`,** and that is the whole point: `freesailarr` keeps a hand-maintained `appVersion` for ten upstreams, so the update that prompted the rule moved an image tag in `values.yaml` while `appVersion` stood still (see "The one grouped chart" above). Verified rather than assumed — Renovate 44.155.7, keycloak pinned one minor back: `--platform=local --dry-run=full` classifies the update (`"updateType": "minor"`) but **never reaches the branch worker**, so it cannot show the hook at all; driving Renovate's own post-upgrade executor against a throwaway checkout does, and logs `cmd: "ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh keycloak minor"` with the script answering `1.3.0+up26.7.0 -> 1.4.0+up26.8.1 (update type minor)`.
+
+**Non-semver app versions stay at patch for a minor**, with the reason in the convention rather than in a footnote: in CalVer and date tags the second position is a *month*, so following it would mint a chart minor every month that says nothing about the risk, and in a four-part or suffixed version the positions are not semver positions at all. Seven charts on `main` are in that class — `rss-bridge` (`2026-09-30`), `homeassistant` (`2026.8.3`), `searxng` (`2026.9.13-3b8009065`), `minecraft-server` (`2026.8.2-java25`), `apache-tika` (`3.3.1.0-full`), `teamspeak-server` (`6.0.0-beta13.1`), `valkey` (`9.1.2-alpine`) — and an app **major** is not subject to it, so a year rolling over in a date tag is a chart major exactly as it was before. The honest edge: for `6.0.0-beta13.1` and `9.1.2-alpine` the numeric part *is* a semver line, so the fallback understates a real minor there. That is the accepted trade — conservative by default; a chart that wants the minor earns a documented exception rather than a widened pattern.
+
+**Maximum, not replacement.** The chart jump is the *greater* of the chart's own classification and the app jump, so a value that becomes required stays a chart major under an app patch. Mechanically it is also what makes a grouped branch deterministic: the hook runs once per update and every call recomputes from the same base commit, so without the maximum the last call would win and `freesailarr`'s minor-among-patches group would take whatever level it happened to end on. The script only ever keeps a *higher* version than it computes, which is why repeated runs stay idempotent, and everything else is derived from the base commit for the same reason.
+
+`ci/run-bump-level-test.sh` holds every one of those cases (49 of them) against the version string the script writes — a wrong level is a valid version string, so the PR would go green and the only symptom would be a number that understates what it publishes.
 
 > **One-time setup outside this repo:** `postUpgradeTasks` only runs on self-hosted Renovate **and** only when the command is allow-listed in the *instance* config:
 >
@@ -311,6 +332,8 @@ Everything is derived from the base commit, so the script is idempotent across t
 > ```
 >
 > Without that entry Renovate skips the task without an error and every chart PR stays red on the version check.
+>
+> **The second argument depends on that pattern's shape, and the shape is not visible from here.** Renovate matches the allow-list against the **compiled** command (`allowedCommands.some((p) => regEx(p).test(compiledCmd))`), so the front-anchored form above still matches with an argument appended — measured, see the dry run noted in `renovate.json5`. A pattern anchored at the end on the instance (`…\.sh$`) would stop matching and produce the same silent skip a missing entry does. Only the maintainer can check that at the instance. It is why the script treats a **missing** update type as the pre-#128 behaviour instead of an error: the worst case of a narrower allow-list, an older Renovate or an unpopulated template field is the old classification, not red chart PRs.
 
 If the dependency dashboard reports `Failed to look up github-releases package …: no-result` for third-party repos, that is the instance's github.com credentials, not this config. The instance needs a read-only PAT as `GITHUB_COM_TOKEN` for github.com datasource lookups; its own platform token is a Gitea token and is worth nothing there.
 
@@ -371,10 +394,11 @@ These guidelines are **binding for every current and future chart** in this repo
 ### 2. Versioning
 
 - `Chart.yaml` uses `version: <chart-semver>+up<appVersion>`; the `+up` suffix matches `appVersion`, with dashes normalized to dots (e.g. `0.0.36-beta` → `+up0.0.36.beta`). `appVersion` is the **exact image tag** of the main app image.
-- Semver rules for the chart part:
-  - **Patch**: bug fixes without behavior or values-schema change; plain app-version updates.
-  - **Minor**: additive, backward-compatible changes (new optional values with unchanged defaults).
-  - **Major**: runtime behavior changes or breaking values changes (e.g. resource renames, probes, security hardening, values that become required).
+- Semver rules for the chart part. **The chart jump is the greater of the chart's own classification and the jump of what it ships** (Gitea #128) — a maximum, never a replacement, so a value that becomes required is a chart major even under an app patch:
+  - **Patch**: bug fixes without behavior or values-schema change; an app **patch** or digest update.
+  - **Minor**: additive, backward-compatible changes (new optional values with unchanged defaults); an app **minor** update.
+  - **Major**: runtime behavior changes or breaking values changes (e.g. resource renames, probes, security hardening, values that become required); an app **major** update.
+- The app half of that is mechanical and belongs to the hook rather than to a reviewer's judgement: `ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh` takes the level from Renovate's update type, with non-semver app versions staying at patch for a minor and a missing update type falling back to the old behaviour. The full rule, the seven affected charts and what it deliberately does **not** oblige anybody to read are in "The version-bump hook" above.
 - Any push to `main` touching a chart directory publishes that chart, so the version must be bumped in the same change.
 
 ### 3. Images
@@ -584,7 +608,7 @@ One more trap, and it is the reason `stalwart` gates its subchart on `valkeySubc
 
 **What it costs, all of it visible before the next one is added:**
 
-- **The subchart is invisible to everything downstream.** Its version is inside our packaged `.tgz`, so anything that watches Helm release versions — Fleet's `fleet.yaml` in `cluster-config` included — sees only *our* chart version. A new upstream release, security fix included, reaches a cluster **only** when we publish a new version of the outer chart. Nothing reports the gap. Renovate's built-in `helmv3` manager opens the PR (no `customManagers` entry needed — the repository URL and version sit together in one file) and `ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh` bumps the chart patch that ships it; that chain is the entire safety net. State this in a comment at the pinned version, not only in a review.
+- **The subchart is invisible to everything downstream.** Its version is inside our packaged `.tgz`, so anything that watches Helm release versions — Fleet's `fleet.yaml` in `cluster-config` included — sees only *our* chart version. A new upstream release, security fix included, reaches a cluster **only** when we publish a new version of the outer chart. Nothing reports the gap. Renovate's built-in `helmv3` manager opens the PR (no `customManagers` entry needed — the repository URL and version sit together in one file) and `ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh` bumps the chart version that ships it — since Gitea #128 at the **subchart's own level**, so an upstream minor is a chart minor even though our `appVersion` did not move. That chain is the entire safety net, and the number it writes is the only place the subchart's jump is visible at all. State this in a comment at the pinned version, not only in a review.
 - **Every pipeline that touches the chart needs a network fetch first.** `helm lint`, `helm package`, `helm template` and `helm install` all exit 1 while a declared dependency is missing from `charts/`, so `ci/helm-dependencies.sh` runs before each of them (see CI/CD above). One of those call sites is the resource-quantity render test, which runs over **every** chart on **every** PR — a dependency-carrying chart can therefore turn a third-party Helm repository's bad day into a red pipeline on a PR that touched nothing related.
 - **`charts/*.tgz` and `Chart.lock` are not committed** (`.gitignore` says why): the archive is a third-party binary nobody reviews in a diff, and a committed lock would arrive stale because Renovate rewrites `Chart.yaml` and cannot regenerate it — which is also why the pipelines run `helm dependency update` and not `helm dependency build`.
 - **The repo's own mechanisms stop at the subchart boundary.** `checksum/config`, the 1Password auto-restart annotation and the `scaleDown` flag reach our templates only. A chart that renders a `OnePasswordItem` for its subchart documents the manual `kubectl rollout restart` that replaces the missing restart-on-change.

ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh

@@ -11,23 +11,56 @@
 # failing the `build-chart` version-bump check. This script closes that gap and
 # is wired up as a `postUpgradeTasks` command in renovate.json5.
 #
-# Usage: ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh <chart-directory>
+# Usage: ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh <chart-directory> [update-type]
 #
-# Bump level (README "Versioning"):
-#   - app major changed  -> chart major, minor/patch reset to 0
-#   - anything else      -> chart patch (plain app updates, sidecar images)
+# Bump level (README "Versioning", decided in Gitea #128):
+#   - update type major        -> chart major, minor/patch reset to 0
+#   - update type minor        -> chart MINOR, patch reset to 0
+#   - patch / digest / pin     -> chart patch
+#   - no or unknown update type -> the appVersion comparison below, i.e. the
+#                                 behaviour this script had before #128
+#   - and never BELOW what the branch already carries (see the maximum rule
+#     further down)
+#
+# THE UPDATE TYPE COMES FROM RENOVATE, AND THAT IS THE POINT (Gitea #128).
+# Renovate has already classified the jump; passing `{{{updateType}}}` in is
+# what makes a chart minor possible at all. Deriving it here from appVersion
+# would be blind to exactly the case that prompted the rule: `freesailarr`
+# carries a hand-maintained `appVersion: "1.0.0"` for ten upstreams and it never
+# moves, so prowlarr's 2.5.2 -> 2.6.5 — an image tag in values.yaml — is a
+# minor with an unchanged appVersion. README, "Dependency updates (Renovate)".
+#
+# WHAT A CHART MINOR BUYS, AND WHAT IT DOES NOT. It makes the number honest: an
+# app minor stops arriving as a chart patch. It does NOT oblige anyone to read
+# the release notes — that variant was decided against — so an app minor that
+# changes a default can still reach `main` unremarked. What the number does is
+# make the jump VISIBLE to everything downstream that sees only our chart
+# version (Fleet's `fleet.yaml` in `cluster-config` among them), where a patch
+# is invisible. See the wiki, Lessons-Learned.
+#
+# THE SECOND ARGUMENT IS OPTIONAL ON PURPOSE. `postUpgradeTasks` only runs when
+# the command is allow-listed in the *instance* config, which is not visible
+# from this repository, and a command that does not match the allow-list is
+# skipped SILENTLY. So a missing update type — a narrower allow-list pattern, an
+# older Renovate, a template field that is not populated — must not be a
+# failure: without it the script falls back to what it did before #128 and every
+# chart PR still gets its version bump.
 #
 # Everything is derived from the base commit (HEAD, which during
 # postUpgradeTasks still points at the base branch), never from the working
 # tree's `version:`. That makes repeated runs on the same branch idempotent —
 # Renovate calls the script once per dependency update, and a branch may carry
-# more than one update for the same chart.
+# more than one update for the same chart. The one place the working tree IS
+# read is the maximum rule below, and only to keep a higher version.
 #
 # Runs inside the Renovate container, so: POSIX sh, no bashisms, no jq/yq.
+#
+# Tested by ci/run-bump-level-test.sh, which is where the cases live.
 
 set -eu
 
 dir=${1:-}
+update_type=${2:-}
 [ -n "$dir" ] || exit 0
 
 # Strip a trailing slash so "outline/" and "outline" behave the same.
@@ -49,6 +82,72 @@ field() {
   sed -n "s/^$1:[[:space:]]*//p" | head -n 1 | tr -d "\"' "
 }
 
+# Splits "<major>.<minor>.<patch>" into p_major/p_minor/p_patch. Returns 1 if
+# the string is not exactly three numeric parts, which is also how a four-part
+# version (3.3.1.0) and a suffixed one (9.1.2-alpine) are rejected: the last
+# part then is not numeric.
+parse_semver() {
+  _sv=$1
+  case "$_sv" in
+    *.*.*) ;;
+    *) return 1 ;;
+  esac
+  p_major=${_sv%%.*}
+  _rest=${_sv#*.}
+  p_minor=${_rest%%.*}
+  p_patch=${_rest#*.}
+  for _part in "$p_major" "$p_minor" "$p_patch"; do
+    case "$_part" in
+      '' | *[!0-9]*) return 1 ;;
+    esac
+  done
+  return 0
+}
+
+# Is <a.b.c> strictly greater than <d.e.f>? Six arguments, componentwise.
+semver_gt() {
+  if [ "$1" -ne "$4" ]; then
+    if [ "$1" -gt "$4" ]; then return 0; else return 1; fi
+  fi
+  if [ "$2" -ne "$5" ]; then
+    if [ "$2" -gt "$5" ]; then return 0; else return 1; fi
+  fi
+  if [ "$3" -gt "$6" ]; then return 0; else return 1; fi
+}
+
+# Does this app version's MINOR POSITION carry a statement about jump width?
+# Only a plain [v]X.Y.Z does. Everything else keeps the pre-#128 behaviour, i.e.
+# a patch, and the reason is in the convention rather than in a footnote: in
+# CalVer and in date tags the second position is a MONTH, so following it would
+# produce a chart minor every month that says nothing about the risk, and in a
+# four-part or suffixed version the positions are not semver positions at all.
+#
+# Measured on origin/main, this covers seven charts and only those seven:
+#   rss-bridge       2026-09-30            (no dots at all)
+#   homeassistant    2026.8.3              (CalVer — caught by the year guard)
+#   searxng          2026.9.13-3b8009065   (CalVer plus a commit hash)
+#   minecraft-server 2026.8.2-java25       (CalVer plus a JRE suffix)
+#   apache-tika      3.3.1.0-full          (four parts plus a flavour)
+#   teamspeak-server 6.0.0-beta13.1        (prerelease line)
+#   valkey           9.1.2-alpine          (flavour suffix)
+#
+# The last two are the honest edge of this rule: their numeric part IS a semver
+# line, so the fallback understates a real minor there. That is the decided
+# trade — conservative by default, and a chart that wants the minor gets a
+# documented exception rather than a widened pattern.
+#
+# A `major` update type is NOT subject to this: a year rolling over in a date
+# tag arrives as a major, and that was a chart major before #128 too.
+app_minor_is_meaningful() {
+  _av=${1#v}
+  _av=${_av#V}
+  parse_semver "$_av" || return 1
+  # A four-digit leading component from 2000 on is a calendar year, not a
+  # semver major.
+  if [ "$p_major" -ge 2000 ]; then return 1; fi
+  return 0
+}
+
 base=$(git show "HEAD:$chart" 2>/dev/null) || {
   echo "renovate-bump: $chart is new on this branch, leaving its version alone"
   exit 0
@@ -57,6 +156,7 @@ base=$(git show "HEAD:$chart" 2>/dev/null) || {
 base_version=$(printf '%s\n' "$base" | field version)
 base_app=$(printf '%s\n' "$base" | field appVersion)
 new_app=$(field appVersion <"$chart")
+tree_version=$(field version <"$chart")
 
 if [ -z "$base_version" ] || [ -z "$new_app" ]; then
   echo "renovate-bump: $chart has no version/appVersion to work with" >&2
@@ -65,27 +165,13 @@ fi
 
 # <chart-semver> is everything before the +up build suffix.
 semver=${base_version%%+*}
-case "$semver" in
-  *.*.*) ;;
-  *)
+parse_semver "$semver" || {
   echo "renovate-bump: cannot parse chart semver '$semver' in $chart" >&2
   exit 1
-    ;;
-esac
-
-major=${semver%%.*}
-rest=${semver#*.}
-minor=${rest%%.*}
-patch=${rest#*.}
-
-for part in "$major" "$minor" "$patch"; do
-  case "$part" in
-    '' | *[!0-9]*)
-      echo "renovate-bump: non-numeric component in chart semver '$semver'" >&2
-      exit 1
-      ;;
-  esac
-done
+}
+major=$p_major
+minor=$p_minor
+patch=$p_patch
 
 # Leading major of an app version: v1.159.0 -> 1, 3.3.1.0-full -> 3,
 # 2025-06-03 -> 2025.
@@ -93,17 +179,87 @@ app_major() {
   printf '%s' "$1" | sed -e 's/^[vV]//' -e 's/[^0-9].*$//'
 }
 
+# The pre-#128 level: app major changed -> major, anything else -> patch. Also
+# the fallback whenever no usable update type arrives.
+app_version_level() {
   if [ "$new_app" != "$base_app" ] && [ "$(app_major "$new_app")" != "$(app_major "$base_app")" ]; then
-  reason="app major $base_app -> $new_app"
-  new_semver="$((major + 1)).0.0"
+    echo major
   else
-  reason="patch-level change"
-  new_semver="$major.$minor.$((patch + 1))"
+    echo patch
+  fi
+}
+
+case "$update_type" in
+  major)
+    level=major
+    reason="update type major"
+    ;;
+  minor)
+    if app_minor_is_meaningful "$new_app"; then
+      level=minor
+      reason="update type minor"
+    else
+      level=$(app_version_level)
+      reason="update type minor, but appVersion '$new_app' is not a plain semver line -> $level"
+    fi
+    ;;
+  patch | digest | pin | pinDigest)
+    level=patch
+    reason="update type $update_type"
+    ;;
+  '')
+    level=$(app_version_level)
+    reason="no update type given, derived from appVersion -> $level"
+    ;;
+  *)
+    level=$(app_version_level)
+    reason="unknown update type '$update_type', derived from appVersion -> $level"
+    ;;
+esac
+
+case "$level" in
+  major)
+    new_major=$((major + 1))
+    new_minor=0
+    new_patch=0
+    ;;
+  minor)
+    new_major=$major
+    new_minor=$((minor + 1))
+    new_patch=0
+    ;;
+  *)
+    new_major=$major
+    new_minor=$minor
+    new_patch=$((patch + 1))
+    ;;
+esac
+
+# THE MAXIMUM RULE (Gitea #128): the chart level is the GREATER of the chart's
+# own classification and the app jump — never a replacement. Two cases, and the
+# second is the mechanical one:
+#
+#   - a chart-own bump already in the working tree stands. A value that becomes
+#     required is a chart major even when the app jump is a patch, and the chart
+#     version must not stop reporting the chart's own breaks.
+#   - a branch carrying SEVERAL updates. Renovate calls this script once per
+#     update and every call recomputes from the same base commit, so without
+#     this the last call would win: `freesailarr`'s grouped PR has arrived with
+#     three minors among five patches, and the chart level would then depend on
+#     the order the hook happened to run in.
+#
+# It only ever keeps a HIGHER version, so repeated runs stay idempotent.
+if parse_semver "${tree_version%%+*}" &&
+  semver_gt "$p_major" "$p_minor" "$p_patch" "$new_major" "$new_minor" "$new_patch"; then
+  reason="$reason, kept the higher $p_major.$p_minor.$p_patch already on the branch"
+  new_major=$p_major
+  new_minor=$p_minor
+  new_patch=$p_patch
 fi
 
 # Dashes in the app version become dots in the +up suffix.
 suffix=$(printf '%s' "$new_app" | tr '-' '.')
-new_version="$new_semver+up$suffix"
+new_version="$new_major.$new_minor.$new_patch+up$suffix"
 
 sed -i.bak "s|^version:.*|version: $new_version|" "$chart"
 rm -f "$chart.bak"

ci/run-bump-level-test.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,229 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Bump-level test: every case of ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh, held against the
+# version string it writes into a throwaway chart.
+#
+# Usage: ci/run-bump-level-test.sh
+#
+# WHY THIS TEST EXISTS (Gitea #128)
+#
+# Until #128 the hook was a calculator with one branch: app major -> chart
+# major, everything else -> chart patch. With the update type coming from
+# Renovate it became DECIDING LOGIC — it is now the thing that says how big a
+# change the cluster is being offered, and the chart version is the only signal
+# anything downstream sees (README, "Chart dependencies": Fleet's `fleet.yaml`
+# in `cluster-config` sees our chart version and nothing inside the package).
+#
+# And its failure mode is silence. A wrong level is a valid version string: the
+# PR goes green, the chart publishes, and the only symptom is a number that
+# understates what it ships. Nothing in the pipeline reads it, so nothing but a
+# test can.
+#
+# HOW A CASE IS BUILT, AND WHY A REAL GIT REPO
+#
+# The script reads the BASE commit (`git show HEAD:<chart>/Chart.yaml`) and the
+# working tree, so a case is not a function call — it is a repository with a
+# commit and a dirty file. Each case therefore gets a throwaway `git init` in a
+# unique temp directory, one commit carrying the base Chart.yaml, and the new
+# Chart.yaml written over it uncommitted. That is exactly the state Renovate's
+# `postUpgradeTasks` hook runs in.
+#
+# Signing is switched off per command (`-c commit.gpgsign=false`): this
+# workspace signs every commit through an SSH signer, and a throwaway repo has
+# no business invoking it. The temp root comes from `mktemp -d`, because /tmp is
+# shared with whatever else runs on this machine.
+#
+# The runners have no pyyaml, no yq and no Docker — the same constraint
+# ci/run-selector-match-test.sh and ci/run-quantity-render-test.sh work under.
+# None is needed: the fixtures are six-line Chart.yaml files written by printf,
+# and the assertion is one `version:` line read back with sed. Helm is not
+# needed either, which is why this job carries no Helm step.
+#
+# WHAT IS ASSERTED, AND WHAT IS NOT
+#
+# Asserted: the full `version:` line (so the `+up` suffix and its dash-to-dot
+# normalization are covered by every case), the exit code, and for the cases
+# that must leave the chart alone, that the line is untouched.
+#
+# NOT asserted, and not assertable from here: that Renovate passes the update
+# type at all. The hook only runs when the command is allow-listed in the
+# *instance* config, which lives outside this repository — and a pattern that
+# does not match is skipped silently. That is why a missing second argument is
+# itself a case here (it must fall back, not fail), and why the PR that
+# introduced this carries a dry-run instead of a claim.
+set -euo pipefail
+
+ROOT="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/.." && pwd)"
+SCRIPT="$ROOT/ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh"
+
+[ -x "$SCRIPT" ] || {
+  echo "FAIL: $SCRIPT is not executable" >&2
+  exit 1
+}
+
+TMP="$(mktemp -d "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/bump-level-test.XXXXXX")"
+trap 'rm -rf "$TMP"' EXIT
+
+GIT_OPTS=(-c user.name=ci -c user.email=ci@example.invalid -c commit.gpgsign=false -c tag.gpgsign=false)
+
+passed=0
+failed=0
+
+chart_yaml() { # <name> <version> <appVersion>
+  printf 'apiVersion: v2\nname: %s\ndescription: test fixture\ntype: application\nversion: %s\nappVersion: "%s"\nicon: https://example.com/icon.png\n' \
+    "$1" "$2" "$3"
+}
+
+# Builds a repository whose HEAD carries <base-content> for <dir>/Chart.yaml
+# (skipped when empty, which is the "new chart on this branch" case) and whose
+# working tree carries <tree-content>. Prints the repository path.
+scenario() { # <dir> <base-content> <tree-content>
+  local dir=$1 base=$2 tree=$3 repo
+  repo="$(mktemp -d "$TMP/case.XXXXXX")"
+  git -C "$repo" init -q
+  printf 'root commit so HEAD exists\n' >"$repo/README.md"
+  git -C "$repo" add README.md
+  git -C "$repo" "${GIT_OPTS[@]}" commit -qm "root"
+  mkdir -p "$repo/$dir"
+  if [ -n "$base" ]; then
+    printf '%s' "$base" >"$repo/$dir/Chart.yaml"
+    git -C "$repo" add "$dir/Chart.yaml"
+    git -C "$repo" "${GIT_OPTS[@]}" commit -qm "base chart"
+  fi
+  [ -z "$tree" ] || printf '%s' "$tree" >"$repo/$dir/Chart.yaml"
+  printf '%s' "$repo"
+}
+
+version_of() { sed -n 's/^version:[[:space:]]*//p' "$1" | head -n 1; }
+
+report() { # <name> <expected> <got> <expected-rc> <got-rc> <output>
+  if [ "$2" = "$3" ] && [ "$4" = "$5" ]; then
+    passed=$((passed + 1))
+    printf '  ok   %s\n' "$1"
+  else
+    failed=$((failed + 1))
+    printf '  FAIL %s\n       expected version %-24s rc %s\n       got      version %-24s rc %s\n       output:  %s\n' \
+      "$1" "$2" "$4" "$3" "$5" "$6"
+  fi
+}
+
+# The ordinary case: one chart, a base version, an app version that may or may
+# not have moved, and an update type. UPDATE_TYPE of "-" calls the script with
+# ONE argument (the allow-list / older-Renovate case), "" passes an empty
+# second argument (a template field that resolved to nothing).
+bump() { # <name> <base-version> <base-app> <tree-version> <tree-app> <update-type> <expected-version> [expected-rc]
+  local name=$1 base_version=$2 base_app=$3 tree_version=$4 tree_app=$5 utype=$6 expected=$7 rc_expected=${8:-0}
+  local repo out rc got
+  repo="$(scenario demo "$(chart_yaml demo "$base_version" "$base_app")" "$(chart_yaml demo "$tree_version" "$tree_app")")"
+  rc=0
+  if [ "$utype" = "-" ]; then
+    out="$(cd "$repo" && "$SCRIPT" demo 2>&1)" || rc=$?
+  else
+    out="$(cd "$repo" && "$SCRIPT" demo "$utype" 2>&1)" || rc=$?
+  fi
+  got="$(version_of "$repo/demo/Chart.yaml")"
+  report "$name" "$expected" "$got" "$rc_expected" "$rc" "$out"
+}
+
+echo "== update type decides the level (plain semver appVersion) =="
+bump "major -> chart major"            1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2.3+up1.4.0 2.0.0 major 2.0.0+up2.0.0
+bump "minor -> chart minor"            1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.5.0 minor 1.3.0+up1.5.0
+bump "patch -> chart patch"            1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.1 patch 1.2.4+up1.4.1
+bump "digest -> chart patch"           1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 digest 1.2.4+up1.4.0
+bump "pin -> chart patch"              1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 pin 1.2.4+up1.4.0
+bump "pinDigest -> chart patch"        1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 pinDigest 1.2.4+up1.4.0
+bump "minor resets the patch"          1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.5.0 minor 1.3.0+up1.5.0
+bump "major resets minor and patch"    4.5.6+up1.4.0 1.4.0 4.5.6+up1.4.0 2.0.0 major 5.0.0+up2.0.0
+
+echo "== the case that prompted the rule: appVersion never moves (freesailarr) =="
+# prowlarr 2.5.2 -> 2.6.5 is an image tag in values.yaml; freesailarr's
+# appVersion is a hand-maintained marker and stays at 1.0.0. An appVersion
+# comparison sees nothing and would bump the patch.
+bump "sidecar/bundle minor, appVersion unchanged" 3.1.1+up1.0.0 1.0.0 3.1.1+up1.0.0 1.0.0 minor 3.2.0+up1.0.0
+bump "sidecar/bundle patch, appVersion unchanged" 3.1.1+up1.0.0 1.0.0 3.1.1+up1.0.0 1.0.0 patch 3.1.2+up1.0.0
+
+echo "== non-semver app versions stay at patch (all seven on origin/main) =="
+bump "rss-bridge date tag, month roll"  2.1.1+up2026.09.30 2026-09-30 2.1.1+up2026.09.30 2026-10-05 minor 2.1.2+up2026.10.05
+bump "homeassistant CalVer"             6.2.0+up2026.8.3 2026.8.3 6.2.0+up2026.8.3 2026.9.0 minor 6.2.1+up2026.9.0
+bump "searxng CalVer plus hash"         1.1.0+up2026.9.13.3b8009065 2026.9.13-3b8009065 1.1.0+up2026.9.13.3b8009065 2026.10.1-aa12bb34c minor 1.1.1+up2026.10.1.aa12bb34c
+bump "minecraft-server CalVer plus JRE" 6.0.1+up2026.8.2.java25 2026.8.2-java25 6.0.1+up2026.8.2.java25 2026.9.1-java25 minor 6.0.2+up2026.9.1.java25
+bump "apache-tika four parts"           10.0.2+up3.3.1.0.full 3.3.1.0-full 10.0.2+up3.3.1.0.full 3.4.0.0-full minor 10.0.3+up3.4.0.0.full
+bump "teamspeak prerelease line"        5.1.3+up6.0.0.beta13.1 6.0.0-beta13.1 5.1.3+up6.0.0.beta13.1 6.0.0-beta14.1 minor 5.1.4+up6.0.0.beta14.1
+bump "valkey flavour suffix"            1.0.0+up9.1.2.alpine 9.1.2-alpine 1.0.0+up9.1.2.alpine 9.2.0-alpine minor 1.0.1+up9.2.0.alpine
+# A major is NOT subject to the fallback - a year rolling over was a chart major
+# before #128 as well.
+bump "date tag, year roll, major"       2.1.1+up2026.09.30 2026-09-30 2.1.1+up2026.09.30 2027-01-05 major 3.0.0+up2027.01.05
+bump "four parts, app major, major"     10.0.2+up3.3.1.0.full 3.3.1.0-full 10.0.2+up3.3.1.0.full 4.0.0.0-full major 11.0.0+up4.0.0.0.full
+# The year guard is a guard, not a blanket: a v-prefixed plain line still counts.
+bump "v-prefixed plain semver, minor"   7.2.0+upv1.159.0 v1.159.0 7.2.0+upv1.159.0 v1.160.0 minor 7.3.0+upv1.160.0
+
+echo "== maximum, not replacement =="
+# A chart-own bump already in the working tree stands, whatever the app jump is.
+bump "chart major already on branch, app patch" 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 2.0.0+up1.4.0 1.4.1 patch 2.0.0+up1.4.1
+bump "chart minor already on branch, app patch" 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.3.0+up1.4.0 1.4.1 patch 1.3.0+up1.4.1
+# A grouped branch: the hook runs once per update from the same base, so the
+# minor must survive a patch call that follows it.
+bump "minor on branch, later patch call"        3.1.1+up1.0.0 1.0.0 3.2.0+up1.0.0 1.0.0 patch 3.2.0+up1.0.0
+bump "patch on branch, later minor call"        3.1.1+up1.0.0 1.0.0 3.1.2+up1.0.0 1.0.0 minor 3.2.0+up1.0.0
+bump "repeated minor call is idempotent"        3.1.1+up1.0.0 1.0.0 3.2.0+up1.0.0 1.0.0 minor 3.2.0+up1.0.0
+bump "repeated major call is idempotent"        1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 2.0.0+up2.0.0 2.0.0 major 2.0.0+up2.0.0
+bump "major on branch wins over a later minor"  1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 2.0.0+up1.4.0 1.5.0 minor 2.0.0+up1.5.0
+# Stale branch after a rebase: the base moved ahead of what the branch carries,
+# so the recomputed version wins and nothing is kept.
+bump "stale branch version is not kept"         3.3.0+up1.0.0 1.0.0 3.1.2+up1.0.0 1.0.0 patch 3.3.1+up1.0.0
+
+echo "== missing and unknown update type fall back to the pre-#128 behaviour =="
+bump "no second argument, app major"   1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2.3+up1.4.0 2.0.0 - 2.0.0+up2.0.0
+bump "no second argument, app minor"   1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.5.0 - 1.2.4+up1.5.0
+bump "no second argument, app patch"   1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.1 - 1.2.4+up1.4.1
+bump "no second argument, unchanged"   3.1.1+up1.0.0 1.0.0 3.1.1+up1.0.0 1.0.0 - 3.1.2+up1.0.0
+bump "empty second argument, app major" 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2.3+up1.4.0 2.0.0 "" 2.0.0+up2.0.0
+bump "empty second argument, app minor" 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.5.0 "" 1.2.4+up1.5.0
+bump "unknown type, app minor"         1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.5.0 replacement 1.2.4+up1.5.0
+bump "unknown type, app major"         1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2.3+up1.4.0 2.0.0 lockFileMaintenance 2.0.0+up2.0.0
+bump "unknown type, maximum still holds" 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 2.0.0+up1.4.0 1.4.1 nonsense 2.0.0+up1.4.1
+
+echo "== charts the script must leave alone, and the hard failures =="
+bump "unparsable chart semver fails loudly" 1.2+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2+up1.4.0 1.5.0 minor 1.2+up1.4.0 1
+bump "missing appVersion fails loudly"      1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0 1.2.3+up1.4.0 "" minor 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1
+
+new_chart_repo="$(scenario demo "" "$(chart_yaml demo 0.1.0+up1.0.0 1.0.0)")"
+rc=0
+out="$(cd "$new_chart_repo" && "$SCRIPT" demo minor 2>&1)" || rc=$?
+report "a chart new on the branch keeps its version" \
+  "0.1.0+up1.0.0" "$(version_of "$new_chart_repo/demo/Chart.yaml")" 0 "$rc" "$out"
+case "$out" in
+  *"new on this branch"*) passed=$((passed + 1)); printf '  ok   and says so\n' ;;
+  *) failed=$((failed + 1)); printf '  FAIL new chart: no explanation in the output: %s\n' "$out" ;;
+esac
+
+tpl_repo="$(scenario template-chart "$(chart_yaml template-chart 4.2.0+upxxx xxx)" "$(chart_yaml template-chart 4.2.0+upxxx xxx)")"
+rc=0
+out="$(cd "$tpl_repo" && "$SCRIPT" template-chart minor 2>&1)" || rc=$?
+report "template-chart is never touched" \
+  "4.2.0+upxxx" "$(version_of "$tpl_repo/template-chart/Chart.yaml")" 0 "$rc" "$out"
+
+# Renovate calls the hook for every update it makes, chart or not.
+other_repo="$(scenario demo "$(chart_yaml demo 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0)" "$(chart_yaml demo 1.2.3+up1.4.0 1.4.0)")"
+for arg in ".github/workflows" "ci/gateway-api-crds.sh" "." "" "not-a-chart"; do
+  rc=0
+  out="$(cd "$other_repo" && "$SCRIPT" "$arg" major 2>&1)" || rc=$?
+  report "non-chart argument '$arg' is a no-op" \
+    "1.2.3+up1.4.0" "$(version_of "$other_repo/demo/Chart.yaml")" 0 "$rc" "$out"
+done
+
+rc=0
+out="$(cd "$other_repo" && "$SCRIPT" 2>&1)" || rc=$?
+report "no arguments at all is a no-op" \
+  "1.2.3+up1.4.0" "$(version_of "$other_repo/demo/Chart.yaml")" 0 "$rc" "$out"
+
+rc=0
+out="$(cd "$other_repo" && "$SCRIPT" demo/ patch 2>&1)" || rc=$?
+report "a trailing slash is accepted" \
+  "1.2.4+up1.4.0" "$(version_of "$other_repo/demo/Chart.yaml")" 0 "$rc" "$out"
+
+echo
+if [ "$failed" -gt 0 ]; then
+  printf 'bump-level test: %d passed, %d FAILED\n' "$passed" "$failed"
+  exit 1
+fi
+printf 'bump-level test: %d cases passed\n' "$passed"

renovate.json5

@@ -88,8 +88,55 @@
   // line can only come from this hook. Nothing has to be configured for the
   // move - but the allow-list lives on that instance, not in this repo, so it
   // is also not visible from here if it is ever removed.
+  //
+  // THE SECOND ARGUMENT IS THE UPDATE TYPE (Gitea #128), and it is what lets
+  // the chart version follow the app version: major -> major, minor -> MINOR,
+  // patch/digest -> patch. It is passed rather than derived because Renovate
+  // has already classified the jump and the script cannot: `freesailarr` keeps
+  // a hand-maintained `appVersion: "1.0.0"` for ten upstreams, so prowlarr's
+  // 2.5.2 -> 2.6.5 moved an image tag in values.yaml while appVersion stood
+  // still - an appVersion comparison is blind to exactly the case the rule was
+  // written for (README, "The version-bump hook").
+  //
+  // VERIFIED, NOT ASSUMED, and it took two runs because one of them cannot
+  // answer the question. Renovate 44.155.7, keycloak pinned one minor back:
+  //
+  //   1. --platform=local --dry-run=full reads THIS file and classifies the
+  //      update ("updateType": "minor", newValue 26.8.1, alongside a separate
+  //      "patch" bucket for 26.7.5). What it does NOT do is reach the branch
+  //      worker at all - there is not one "Processing branch" line in the log -
+  //      so the hook never runs under the local platform and that run can
+  //      prove the lookup and the config, never the command.
+  //   2. Renovate's own post-upgrade executor
+  //      (dist/workers/repository/update/branch/execute-post-upgrade-commands)
+  //      driven against a throwaway checkout with allowedCommands set to the
+  //      pattern above:
+  //        DEBUG: Executed post-upgrade task
+  //          "cmd": "ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh keycloak minor"
+  //          "stdout": "renovate-bump: keycloak/Chart.yaml 1.3.0+up26.7.0 ->
+  //                     1.4.0+up26.8.1 (update type minor)"
+  //      So the field arrives populated, the front-anchored allow-list accepts
+  //      the command WITH the argument, and the result is a chart minor.
+  //
+  // `updateType` is in Renovate's template allowedFields (util/template:
+  // "One of digest, pin, rollback, patch, minor, major, replacement,
+  // pinDigest") and the command is compiled per UPDATE here, which is what
+  // executionMode: "update" below means.
+  //
+  // THE RISK THIS ADDS, and it cannot be settled from inside this repo: the
+  // allow-list is matched against the COMPILED command
+  // (`allowedCommands.some((p) => regEx(p).test(compiledCmd))`), so the
+  // front-anchored pattern above still matches with an argument appended. A
+  // pattern anchored at the END on the instance (`...\.sh$`) would stop
+  // matching and the task would be skipped with every chart PR red on the
+  // version check - the same silent failure a missing entry produces. Which
+  // form the instance uses is not visible from here. The script therefore
+  // treats a MISSING second argument as the pre-#128 behaviour instead of an
+  // error, so the worst case is the old classification rather than an outage.
   postUpgradeTasks: {
-    commands: ["ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh {{{packageFileDir}}}"],
+    commands: [
+      "ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh {{{packageFileDir}}} {{{updateType}}}",
+    ],
     fileFilters: ["**/Chart.yaml"],
     // "update" runs the script once per dependency update with the package
     // file's directory, which is what the script needs to find the chart. The
@@ -169,9 +216,12 @@
         "its size suggests: a subchart is invisible to everything downstream that watches",
         "Helm release versions, so this PR is the ONLY way a new proxy version - a security",
         "fix included - ever reaches a cluster. Automerge carries that PR to main once it is",
-        "reviewed and the check is green, and ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh bumps the chart patch",
-        "that publishes it (appVersion is unchanged, so it takes the patch branch). A major",
-        "goes the same way - it is the review, not a separate policy, that gives it a look.",
+        "reviewed and the check is green, and ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh bumps the chart version",
+        "that publishes it - since #128 at the SUBCHART'S level, so an oauth2-proxy minor is a",
+        "chart minor even though our appVersion did not move. That is the point of taking the",
+        "level from Renovate rather than from appVersion: the one number anything downstream",
+        "sees now reports the size of what is inside the package. A major goes the same way -",
+        "it is the review, not a separate policy, that gives it a look.",
       ],
       matchManagers: ["helmv3"],
       addLabels: ["subchart"],
@@ -262,6 +312,12 @@
         "publish, one install-test run for the whole stack. Nothing is left to serialize, so",
         "nothing is left to rebase.",
         "",
+        "WHAT LEVEL A MIXED GROUP GETS, since #128 made that a question: the hook still runs once",
+        "per update and still recomputes from the same base, so the group takes the HIGHEST level",
+        "in it - three minors among five patches is a chart minor, whatever order the updates are",
+        "processed in. That is the maximum rule in ci/renovate-bump-chart.sh, and this branch is",
+        "the reason it is not optional: without it the last call would win.",
+        "",
         "MATCHED BY FILE, NOT BY A LIST OF IMAGE NAMES. What creates the collision is 'touches",
         "freesailarr/Chart.yaml', and that is true of every dependency Renovate finds in that",
         "chart's values.yaml, whatever its manager, datasource or role in the pod. A",