A few quick things to check that usually explain “no worker pod shows up” after installing the

prefect/prefect-worker

chart: First, sanity checks - Verify the Helm release actually installed into the expected namespace:

helm list -n githubsync
  helm status prefect-worker -n githubsync

- Confirm you’re looking in the right cluster/namespace:

kubectl config current-context
  kubectl get all -n githubsync

- If the namespace didn’t exist,

helm install

would fail unless you used

--create-namespace

. If needed, reinstall with:

helm uninstall prefect-worker -n githubsync || true
  kubectl create namespace githubsync
  helm install prefect-worker prefect/prefect-worker -n githubsync -f values.yaml

If the release is present but there’s still no pod - Check if the Deployment exists and what Kubernetes says about it:

kubectl get deploy,rs,po -n githubsync -l <http://app.kubernetes.io/instance=prefect-worker|app.kubernetes.io/instance=prefect-worker>
  kubectl describe deploy -n githubsync -l <http://app.kubernetes.io/instance=prefect-worker|app.kubernetes.io/instance=prefect-worker>
  kubectl get events -n githubsync --sort-by=.lastTimestamp

- If there’s no Deployment at all, your values may be preventing templates from rendering. - If there is a Deployment but no Pods, look for events like image pull errors, invalid security context, or HPA scaling to 0 (shouldn’t be the default). Template/values validation - Render your chart locally to see exactly what it’s creating:

helm template prefect-worker prefect/prefect-worker -n githubsync -f values.yaml

If this does not include a

Deployment

named like

prefect-worker

, something in

values.yaml

is turning it off or failing the render. Also try:

helm install --dry-run --debug prefect-worker prefect/prefect-worker -n githubsync -f values.yaml

Most common causes we see - Missing required values (the chart still installs, but if the Deployment is suppressed by values you won’t see a pod): - You must set a work pool name:

worker:
      config:
        workPool: <your-work-pool-name>

- You must set the API config correctly for your environment: For Prefect Cloud:

worker:
      apiConfig: cloud
      config:
        workPool: <pool>
      cloudApiConfig:
        accountId: "<account-id>"
        workspaceId: "<workspace-id>"
        apiKeySecret:
          name: prefect-api-key
          key: key

And ensure the secret exists:

kubectl create secret generic prefect-api-key -n githubsync --from-literal=key=YOUR_API_KEY

For self-hosted Server:

worker:
      apiConfig: selfHostedServer
      config:
        workPool: <pool>
      selfHostedServerApiConfig:
        apiUrl: "http://<your-prefect-server>/api"

- Autoscaling/replicas misconfigurations: - By default, autoscaling is disabled and replicas=1. If you enabled autoscaling, make sure

minReplicas >= 1

and

maxReplicas > minReplicas

. A mis-set HPA can sometimes prevent pods from coming up. - ServiceAccount/RBAC issues: - If you disabled `serviceAccount`/`role`/`rolebinding` creation but didn’t provide an existing ServiceAccount, the Deployment may fail to create pods. Check:

kubectl get serviceaccount,role,rolebinding -n githubsync -l <http://app.kubernetes.io/instance=prefect-worker|app.kubernetes.io/instance=prefect-worker>

- Image pull problems or security context conflicts: - You’ll see events like

ImagePullBackOff

,

CreateContainerConfigError

, or admission webhook/security policy denials in

kubectl describe deploy/...

or

kubectl get events

. If you can share a bit more, I can pinpoint it quickly: - Output of: -

helm status prefect-worker -n githubsync

-

kubectl get deploy,rs,po -n githubsync -l <http://app.kubernetes.io/instance=prefect-worker|app.kubernetes.io/instance=prefect-worker>

-

helm template prefect-worker prefect/prefect-worker -n githubsync -f values.yaml | sed -n '1,200p'

(first part showing if a Deployment rendered)

- The relevant part of your

values.yaml

(redact secrets), especially under

worker:

. Helpful references - Chart repo and values reference: prefect-helm/charts/prefect-worker - Default values.yaml: values.yaml - Chart README: README - Prefect Server with Helm guide: docs: Server + Helm - Work pools / workers overview: docs: Work pools