In-cluster installation of Meshery on EKS fail for clusters that use exec-based kubeconfig auth

Current Behavior

mesheryctl system start -p kubernentes errors out because ApplyHelmChart fails against EKS clusters that use exec-based kubeconfig auth (aws eks get-token).

In createHelmActionConfig, Meshkit sets kubeConfig.KubeConfig = /dev/null and wires only APIServer + BearerToken. For exec-auth contexts, rest.Config.ExecProvider is populated but rest.Config.BearerToken is empty, so Helm is initialized without usable credentials and returns:

could not install Meshery Server: Kubernetes cluster unreachable: the server has asked for the client to provide credentials

This causes both Meshery Server and Meshery Operator installation to fail in the same run. The wrapped error can also misleadingly include “Chart could be invalid.”

Expected Behavior

ApplyHelmChart should support exec-auth kubeconfigs (EKS/GKE/AKS exec plugin flows). In this case EKS is only tested.

When ExecProvider is present and BearerToken is empty, Helm auth setup should use kubeconfig/exec-based credential resolution (or equivalent dynamic token handling) instead of forcing /dev/null + static bearer token.

Result: chart installation should succeed with the same kubeconfig that already works with helm.

Screenshots/Logs

mesheryctl system start -p kubernetes fails with the following error:

Error: failed to start Meshery
See https://docs.meshery.io/reference/mesheryctl/system for usage details
: could not install Meshery Server: Kubernetes cluster unreachable: the server has asked for the client to provide credentials | Short Description: Error applying helm chart | Probable Cause: Chart could be invalid | Suggested Remediation: Make sure to apply valid chart | Short Description: Error applying helm chart | Probable Cause: Chart could be invalid | Suggested Remediation: Make sure to apply valid chart

could not install meshery-operator: Kubernetes cluster unreachable: the server has asked for the client to provide credentials | Short Description: Error applying helm chart | Probable Cause: Chart could be invalid | Suggested Remediation: Make sure to apply valid chart | Short Description: Error applying helm chart | Probable Cause: Chart could be invalid | Suggested Remediation: Make sure to apply valid chart

Environment

• Host OS: Mac
• Platform: Kubernetes (EKS)
• Meshery Server Version: v1.0.11
• Meshery Client Version: unavailable

To Reproduce

1. Updated kubeconfig for EKS:
   aws eks update-kubeconfig --region <region> --name <cluster-name>

2. Ran Meshery install on Kubernetes platform:
   mesheryctl system start -p kubernetes --skip-browser

RCA:

Detailed RCA can be found here

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