During June 2026, contributed to the istio/istio repository by developing a new feature for the Gateway Helm chart, enabling configurable healthCheckNodePort support. This enhancement allows users to specify a NodePort for health checks within the gateway service template, offering improved control over health-check traffic in Kubernetes environments. The implementation involved updating Helm chart templates and default YAML values, ensuring seamless integration with existing infrastructure as code practices. All changes were thoroughly documented and aligned with CI checks and Helm chart conventions, demonstrating a focus on maintainability and collaborative development. No bugs were fixed during this period, with work centered on feature delivery.