VPA Helm chart: what is needed for a stable v1 release?

/kind feature /area helm-charts /area vertical-pod-autoscaler

What would you like to be added?

A list of what the VPA Helm chart still needs before it can drop this notice from the README

WARNING: This chart is currently under development and is not ready for production use.

and publish a stable 1.0.0.

Why is this needed?

In #10070 @adrianmoisey mentioned:

For point 3, we haven't yet published a stable version 1 helm chart, so I'm fine with breaking changes.

That makes sense while the values API is still settling, and being able to make breaking changes now is worth keeping. I could not find an issue or doc that describes what the end state looks like, though, so it is hard to tell which contributions move the chart towards it.

There is also a practical side for users choosing how to install VPA today. The main community alternative is the cowboysysop chart, which is on chart 11.1.1 and has a lot of polish. It has fallen behind, though: the last change was October 2025 and its appVersion is 1.5.0, so it has missed VPA 1.6.0 and both 1.7.x releases. It also has no certgen or cert-manager integration, no leader election settings, and no failurePolicy / timeoutSeconds for the webhook — all things this chart already handles.

So the options are a chart that is behind on the application, or the official one that currently says it is not ready for production. Closing out the second seems like the better path, and I would like to help with it.

Anything else?

If the answer is "these, plus X and Y, and nothing else", that would be really useful to have written down. I am happy to pick up whichever items are wanted and split them into separate PRs.

/cc @adrianmoisey @omerap12