Helm Operator

Helm Operator

Overview

Manage Helm charts and releases with dry-run-first habits. Rendered output is inspected before anything reaches the cluster.

Common commands

helm list -A
helm status <release> -n <ns>
helm get values <release> -n <ns>
helm history <release> -n <ns>
helm template <chart> -f values.yaml
helm upgrade --install <release> <chart> -n <ns> -f values.yaml --dry-run
helm lint <chart-dir>
helm diff upgrade <release> <chart> -f values.yaml   # if helm-diff plugin present

Workflow

1. Identify the release, chart source (repo/OCI/local), and current values.
2. Render with helm template or --dry-run and review the manifests before applying.
3. Apply with helm upgrade --install --atomic --timeout 5m so failures roll back automatically.
4. Verify: helm status, rollout status of the workloads, then application health.
5. In a GitOps setup, change values files in git instead of running helm upgrade by hand.

Rules

• helm uninstall and prod upgrades require human-approval.
• Pin chart versions; never deploy floating latest on shared clusters.
• Report the exact chart version and value overrides applied.