Helm Release Management

Comprehensive guidance for day-to-day Helm release operations including installation, upgrades, uninstallation, and release tracking.

When to Use

Use this skill automatically when:

• User requests deploying or installing Helm charts

• User mentions upgrading or updating Helm releases

• User wants to list or manage releases across namespaces

• User needs to check release history or status

• User requests uninstalling or removing releases

Core Release Operations

Install New Release

Basic install

helm install <release-name> <chart> --namespace <namespace> --create-namespace

Install with custom values

helm install myapp bitnami/nginx
--namespace production
--create-namespace
--values values.yaml
--set replicaCount=3

Install with atomic rollback on failure

helm install myapp ./mychart
--namespace staging
--atomic
--timeout 5m
--wait

Install from repository with specific version

helm install mydb bitnami/postgresql
--namespace database
--version 12.1.9
--values db-values.yaml

Dry-run before actual install

helm install myapp ./chart
--namespace prod
--dry-run
--debug

Key Flags:

• --namespace

• Target namespace (ALWAYS specify explicitly)

• --create-namespace

• Create namespace if it doesn't exist

• --values / -f

• Specify values file(s)

• --set

• Override individual values

• --atomic

• Rollback automatically on failure (RECOMMENDED)

• --wait

• Wait for resources to be ready

• --timeout

• Maximum time to wait (default 5m)

• --dry-run --debug

• Preview without installing

Upgrade Existing Release

Basic upgrade with new values

helm upgrade myapp ./mychart
--namespace production
--values values.yaml

Upgrade with value overrides

helm upgrade myapp bitnami/nginx
--namespace prod
--reuse-values
--set image.tag=1.21.0

Upgrade with new chart version

helm upgrade mydb bitnami/postgresql
--namespace database
--version 12.2.0
--atomic
--wait

Install if not exists, upgrade if exists

helm upgrade --install myapp ./chart
--namespace staging
--create-namespace
--values values.yaml

Force upgrade (recreate resources)

helm upgrade myapp ./chart
--namespace prod
--force
--recreate-pods

Key Flags:

• --reuse-values

• Reuse existing values, merge with new

• --reset-values

• Reset to chart defaults, ignore existing

• --install

• Install if release doesn't exist

• --force

• Force resource updates (use cautiously)

• --recreate-pods

• Recreate pods even if no changes

• --cleanup-on-fail

• Delete new resources on failed upgrade

Value Override Precedence (lowest to highest):

• Chart default values (values.yaml in chart)

• Previous release values (with --reuse-values )

• Parent chart values

• User-specified values files (-f values.yaml )

• Individual value overrides (--set key=value )

Uninstall Release

Basic uninstall

helm uninstall myapp --namespace production

Uninstall but keep history (allows rollback)

helm uninstall myapp
--namespace staging
--keep-history

Uninstall with timeout

helm uninstall myapp
--namespace prod
--timeout 10m
--wait

List Releases

List releases in namespace

helm list --namespace production

List all releases across all namespaces

helm list --all-namespaces

List with additional details

helm list
--all-namespaces
--output yaml
--max 50

List including uninstalled releases

helm list --namespace staging --uninstalled

Filter releases by name pattern

helm list --filter '^my.*' --namespace prod

Key Flags:

• --all-namespaces / -A

• List releases across all namespaces

• --all

• Show all releases including failed

• --uninstalled

• Show uninstalled releases

• --failed

• Show only failed releases

• --pending

• Show pending releases

• --filter

• Filter by release name (regex)

Release Information & History

Check Release Status

Get release status

helm status myapp --namespace production

Show deployed resources

helm status myapp
--namespace prod
--show-resources

View Release History

View revision history

helm history myapp --namespace production

View detailed history

helm history myapp
--namespace prod
--output yaml
--max 10

Inspect Release

Get deployed manifest

helm get manifest myapp --namespace production

Get deployed values

helm get values myapp --namespace production

Get all values (including defaults)

helm get values myapp --namespace prod --all

Get release metadata

helm get metadata myapp --namespace production

Get release notes

helm get notes myapp --namespace production

Get everything

helm get all myapp --namespace production

For common workflows (deploy new application, update configuration, upgrade chart version, multi-environment deployment), best practices, troubleshooting, and integration with other tools, see REFERENCE.md.

Agentic Optimizations

Context Command

List releases (structured) helm list -n <ns> -o json

Release history (structured) helm history <release> -n <ns> --output json

Release status (structured) helm status <release> -n <ns> -o json

Values (structured) helm get values <release> -n <ns> -o json

Failed releases helm list -n <ns> --failed -o json

Related Skills

• Helm Debugging - Troubleshooting failed deployments

• Helm Values Management - Advanced values configuration

• Helm Release Recovery - Rollback and recovery strategies

• ArgoCD CLI Login - GitOps integration with ArgoCD

• Kubernetes Operations - Managing deployed resources

References

• Helm Install Documentation

• Helm Upgrade Documentation

• Helm Best Practices

• Helm Values Documentation