Helm Cheatsheet

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0300

Helm reference: repositories, installing and upgrading releases, values, chart development, OCI registries, plugins, hooks and troubleshooting. Examples use the metrics-server chart.

Installation

Platform	Package Manager	Command
Linux	Script (Helm 4)	`curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/main/scripts/get-helm-4 \| bash`
Linux	Script (Helm 3)	`curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/main/scripts/get-helm-3 \| bash`
macOS	Homebrew	`brew install helm`
Windows	Chocolatey	`choco install kubernetes-helm`
Windows	Scoop	`scoop install helm`

Verify Installation

helm version

Shell Completion

Shell	Command
Bash	`helm completion bash \| sudo tee /etc/bash_completion.d/helm > /dev/null`
Zsh	`helm completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_helm"`

Chart Structure

Directory Layout

my-chart/
├── Chart.yaml # Chart metadata (name, version, description)
├── values.yaml # Default configuration values
├── values.schema.json # JSON schema that validates values
├── templates/ # Kubernetes manifest templates
│ ├── deployment.yaml
│ ├── service.yaml
│ ├── configmap.yaml
│ └── _helpers.tpl # Template helpers (prefixed with _)
├── charts/ # Dependency charts (optional)
├── crds/ # CRDs, installed before the templates (never upgraded by Helm)
├── templates/NOTES.txt # Text printed after install/upgrade (a template too)
├── .helmignore # Files left out of the package
└── README.md # Documentation

Chart Download Behavior

When you run helm repo update, Helm downloads only the index (metadata about available charts), not the actual chart packages. Charts are downloaded when you: