Helm Cheat Sheet 2026: Commands and Best Practices

A quick reference for Helm — the Kubernetes package manager. Bookmark this page.

Repository Management

# Add a repository
helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
helm repo add prometheus-community https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts

# Update all repos
helm repo update

# Search for charts
helm search repo nginx
helm search hub wordpress

# List configured repos
helm repo list

# Remove a repo
helm repo remove bitnami

Install and Upgrade

# Install a chart
helm install my-release bitnami/nginx

# Install with custom values
helm install my-release bitnami/nginx -f values.yaml

# Install with inline overrides
helm install my-release bitnami/nginx --set replicaCount=3 --set service.type=LoadBalancer

# Install in a specific namespace (create if missing)
helm install my-release bitnami/nginx -n production --create-namespace

# Upgrade a release
helm upgrade my-release bitnami/nginx -f values.yaml

# Install or upgrade (idempotent)
helm upgrade --install my-release bitnami/nginx -f values.yaml

# Dry run (see what would change)
helm upgrade --install my-release bitnami/nginx -f values.yaml --dry-run

Rollback and History

# View release history
helm history my-release

# Rollback to previous revision
helm rollback my-release

# Rollback to specific revision
helm rollback my-release 3

# Uninstall a release
helm uninstall my-release

# Uninstall but keep history
helm uninstall my-release --keep-history

Inspect and Debug

# List all releases
helm list
helm list -A  # All namespaces
helm list --pending  # Pending releases

# Get release status
helm status my-release

# Get release values (user-supplied)
helm get values my-release

# Get all release info (values, hooks, manifests)
helm get all my-release

# Get rendered manifests
helm get manifest my-release

# Show chart info before installing
helm show chart bitnami/nginx
helm show values bitnami/nginx
helm show readme bitnami/nginx

Template and Validate

# Render templates locally (without installing)
helm template my-release bitnami/nginx -f values.yaml

# Render and validate against cluster
helm template my-release bitnami/nginx -f values.yaml | kubectl apply --dry-run=server -f -

# Lint a chart for errors
helm lint ./my-chart

# Package a chart
helm package ./my-chart

# Create a new chart scaffold
helm create my-new-chart

OCI Registry (Helm 3.8+)

# Login to OCI registry
helm registry login ghcr.io -u username

# Push chart to OCI registry
helm push my-chart-0.1.0.tgz oci://ghcr.io/my-org/charts

# Pull chart from OCI registry
helm pull oci://ghcr.io/my-org/charts/my-chart --version 0.1.0

# Install from OCI registry
helm install my-release oci://ghcr.io/my-org/charts/my-chart --version 0.1.0

Tips and Tricks

• Use helm diff plugin to preview changes: helm plugin install https://github.com/databus23/helm-diff
• Use --wait flag to wait for pods to be ready after install/upgrade
• Use --timeout 10m for slow-starting applications
• Always use --atomic in CI/CD to auto-rollback on failure
• Set helm upgrade --install as your default — it is idempotent

Related Resources

• Kubernetes Cheat Sheet
• ArgoCD Cheat Sheet
• Kustomize Cheat Sheet