Post-render fails with `unknown anchor … referenced` on `kind: List`

[JeffResc]

Environment

Device and OS: Ubuntu Linux on x86_64
App version: Zarf v0.77.0
Kubernetes distro being used: K3s v1.34.4+k3s1 (k3d v5.9.0)
Other:

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a chart with a kind: List template that uses a YAML anchor across items.

   min-chart/Chart.yaml:

   apiVersion: v2
   name: min-chart
   version: 0.1.0

   min-chart/templates/list.yaml:

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: List
   items:
   - apiVersion: v1
     kind: ConfigMap
     metadata:
       name: cm-a
     data: &shared
       key: value
   - apiVersion: v1
     kind: ConfigMap
     metadata:
       name: cm-b
     data: *shared

2. Wrap it in a zarf.yaml:

   kind: ZarfPackageConfig
   metadata:
     name: min-anchor
     version: "dev"
   components:
     - name: chart
       required: true
       charts:
         - name: min-chart
           namespace: min-test
           localPath: min-chart
           version: 0.1.0

3. Build and deploy:

   zarf package create --architecture amd64 --skip-sbom --confirm
   zarf package deploy zarf-package-min-anchor-amd64-dev.tar.zst --confirm

Expected result

Both ConfigMaps deploy successfully, each with data.key = value. Vanilla helm install of the same chart and kubectl apply -f on the rendered output both succeed (see Visual Proof for more details).

Actual Result

ERR  failed to deploy package: unable to deploy component "chart":
release: not found
unable to install chart error while running post render on files:
error re-rendering helm output:
YAML parse error on /tmp/zarf-3747194653/chart.yaml:
error converting YAML to JSON:
yaml: unknown anchor 'shared' referenced

Visual Proof (screenshots, videos, text, etc)

Zarf deploy failure (full error above).

Same chart deploys cleanly via Helm directly:

$ helm install repro ./min-chart -n min-test --create-namespace
NAME: repro
LAST DEPLOYED: ...
NAMESPACE: min-test
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1

$ kubectl get cm -n min-test cm-a cm-b \
    -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.name}={.data.key} {end}'
cm-a=value cm-b=value

The two ConfigMaps both end up with data.key = value — the anchor materializes correctly under Helm and the apiserver.

The same rendered YAML also applies cleanly with kubectl apply -f.

Severity/Priority

Medium. A workaround exists at the chart level (modify the upstream template), but it requires the chart author's intervention.

Additional Context

Scope of the issue, verified with three tests to narrow it down:

Scenario	helm install	zarf package deploy
Single resource, anchor and alias used internally	✅	✅
kind: List with two items, no anchor	✅	✅
kind: List with two items, anchor crosses items	✅	❌

So the issue is specifically about YAML anchors crossing item boundaries within a kind: List, not YAML anchors or kind: List in general. Anchors within a single resource resolve correctly under Zarf; plain kind: List resources without anchors deploy correctly under Zarf.

[JeffResc]

Identified as an upstream helm issue: helm/helm#32203