Declaratively deploy your Kubernetes manifests, Kustomize configs, and Charts as Helm releases in one shot
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Fix helmfile init failing to update outdated helm plugins with Helm v4 (#2554)
* Initial plan

* Fix helmfile init not updating outdated helm plugins with Helm v4

- UpdatePlugin now handles secrets plugin with Helm 4 by using the split
  plugin architecture (uninstall old + install via installHelmSecretsV4)
- UpdatePlugin falls back to uninstall + reinstall when helm plugin update
  fails (e.g., with Helm 4 or tarball-installed plugins)
- Fix string-based semver comparison for helm-secrets version check in
  both AddPlugin and UpdatePlugin using proper semver comparison
- Add helmSecretsRequiresSplitInstall helper for reuse and correctness
- Add tests for update failure fallback scenarios

Agent-Logs-Url: https://github.com/helmfile/helmfile/sessions/533f1b1c-dda6-4934-af27-051e4eaa9927

Co-authored-by: yxxhero <11087727+yxxhero@users.noreply.github.com>

* Address reviewer feedback: preserve update error context and add version assertions in tests

- exec.go: include original update error in fallback log message; wrap both
  errors (update + reinstall) when reinstall also fails so callers get full context
- init_test.go: add semver import and GetPluginVersion assertions after
  CheckHelmPlugins to verify plugins are at required versions on disk

Agent-Logs-Url: https://github.com/helmfile/helmfile/sessions/c784db7d-7d4c-40a0-97f0-a31eb8901cd6

Co-authored-by: yxxhero <11087727+yxxhero@users.noreply.github.com>

* Address second round of reviewer feedback

- exec.go: rename UpdatePlugin parameter path→repo for clarity
- exec.go: fix uninstallPlugin to only emit INFO log when err == nil
- exec_test.go: add Test_helmSecretsRequiresSplitInstall table-driven tests
  covering v4.6.9, v4.7.0, v4.8.0, v4.10.0, pre-release, invalid and empty
- exec_test.go: add Test_UpdatePlugin_Helm4SecretsUsesUninstallReinstall
  verifying that Helm 4 + secrets uses uninstall+reinstall (not plugin update)

Agent-Logs-Url: https://github.com/helmfile/helmfile/sessions/cbd3f8c9-ec7d-4500-b168-cb1c2f7c87bc

Co-authored-by: yxxhero <11087727+yxxhero@users.noreply.github.com>

* Add len(args) >= 3 guards in test mock for plugin update/uninstall cases

Agent-Logs-Url: https://github.com/helmfile/helmfile/sessions/ea0f5afc-d52d-473b-b759-853a8f841a26

Co-authored-by: yxxhero <11087727+yxxhero@users.noreply.github.com>

* Return early with combined error when uninstall fails in UpdatePlugin fallback

Agent-Logs-Url: https://github.com/helmfile/helmfile/sessions/bb9a675c-309d-4b06-83d4-a6fe078dce64

Co-authored-by: yxxhero <11087727+yxxhero@users.noreply.github.com>

---------

Co-authored-by: copilot-swe-agent[bot] <198982749+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: yxxhero <11087727+yxxhero@users.noreply.github.com>
2026-04-25 11:04:23 +08:00
.github Update Go from 1.25.8 to 1.26.2 (#2535) 2026-04-10 11:27:16 +08:00
cmd feat: add an arg that passing description to `helm upgrade` command (#2497) 2026-03-24 21:01:44 +08:00
docs fix: error on missing secret key when using vals (#2496) 2026-03-24 09:42:54 +08:00
examples fix: configure kubedog rate limiter to prevent context cancellation (#2446) 2026-03-03 19:24:28 +08:00
hack release: fix hack/semtag when there are one or more git remotes before `origin` 2019-01-22 01:29:28 +09:00
logo Add logo as .png and .ai (Adobe Illustrator) files (#263) 2022-08-24 07:37:52 +09:00
pkg Fix helmfile init failing to update outdated helm plugins with Helm v4 (#2554) 2026-04-25 11:04:23 +08:00
skills/helmfile feat: add helmfile agent skill for skills.sh (#2441) 2026-03-01 12:06:21 +08:00
test fix: eliminate race condition in rewriteChartDependencies (#2541) 2026-04-20 10:15:47 +08:00
.dockerignore rework dockerfiles (#519) 2022-11-25 10:14:27 +09:00
.editorconfig Improve capitalization and formats of README.md. (#1545) 2020-10-19 08:47:19 +09:00
.gitignore feat: add duration to failed releases summary (#1066) 2023-10-12 18:49:07 -05:00
.golangci.yaml refactor(filesystem): add CopyDir method and optimize Fetch function (#2111) 2025-07-28 16:10:25 -04:00
.goreleaser.yml feat: add helmfile archive configuration in goreleaser (#2000) 2025-04-19 12:11:39 +08:00
.readthedocs.yaml update python3 version for mkdoc.yaml (#1712) 2024-09-18 07:11:12 +08:00
AGENTS.md Update Go from 1.25.8 to 1.26.2 (#2535) 2026-04-10 11:27:16 +08:00
CHANGELOG.md Add CHANGELOG.md (#2457) 2026-03-05 09:50:08 +08:00
CODEOWNERS Add @aditmeno to CODEOWNERS (#2413) 2026-02-20 15:27:21 +08:00
CONTRIBUTING.md chore: update go version to 1.25.8 (#2514) 2026-04-03 18:34:48 +08:00
Dockerfile Update Go from 1.25.8 to 1.26.2 (#2535) 2026-04-10 11:27:16 +08:00
Dockerfile.debian-stable-slim Update Go from 1.25.8 to 1.26.2 (#2535) 2026-04-10 11:27:16 +08:00
Dockerfile.ubuntu Update Go from 1.25.8 to 1.26.2 (#2535) 2026-04-10 11:27:16 +08:00
KUBEDOG_CONFIG.md fix: configure kubedog rate limiter to prevent context cancellation (#2446) 2026-03-03 19:24:28 +08:00
LICENSE Create LICENSE 2017-11-10 16:07:38 -05:00
Makefile feat: add Helm 4 support while maintaining Helm 3 compatibility (#2262) 2025-11-19 07:49:30 +08:00
README-zh_CN.md docs: add zread badge to README (#2219) 2025-10-13 14:10:00 +08:00
README.md docs(README): add mise alternate installation documentation (#2342) 2025-12-24 08:21:58 +08:00
SECURITY.md Create SECURITY.md (#135) 2022-06-05 17:11:54 +09:00
USERS.md Add RightCapital to USERS.md (#1676) 2024-08-24 05:14:38 +08:00
go.mod build(deps): bump github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/service/s3 from 1.99.1 to 1.100.0 (#2552) 2026-04-24 07:32:17 +08:00
go.sum build(deps): bump github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/service/s3 from 1.99.1 to 1.100.0 (#2552) 2026-04-24 07:32:17 +08:00
main.go Make helmfile respect signals send by kill command (not only Ctrl+C in terminal) (#750) 2023-04-29 15:25:29 +09:00
mkdocs.yml docs: add comprehensive values merging and data flow guide (#2461) 2026-03-09 07:34:05 +08:00

README.md

Helmfile

Tests Container Image Repository on GHCR Go Report Card Slack Community #helmfile Documentation Gurubase zread

Deploy Kubernetes Helm Charts

English | 简体中文

About

Helmfile is a declarative spec for deploying helm charts. It lets you...

  • Keep a directory of chart value files and maintain changes in version control.
  • Apply CI/CD to configuration changes.
  • Periodically sync to avoid skew in environments.

To avoid upgrades for each iteration of helm, the helmfile executable delegates to helm - as a result, the following must be installed

Highlights

Declarative: Write, version-control, apply the desired state file for visibility and reproducibility.

Modules: Modularize common patterns of your infrastructure, distribute it via Git, S3, etc. to be reused across the entire company (See #648)

Versatility: Manage your cluster consisting of charts, kustomizations, and directories of Kubernetes resources, turning everything to Helm releases (See #673)

Patch: JSON/Strategic-Merge Patch Kubernetes resources before helm-installing, without forking upstream charts (See #673)

Status

May 2025 Update

  • Helmfile v1.0 and v1.1 has been released. We recommend upgrading directly to v1.1 if you are still using v0.x.
  • If you haven't already upgraded, please go over this v1 proposal here to see a small list of breaking changes.

Installation

1: Binary Installation

download one of releases

2: Package Manager

  • Archlinux: install via pacman -S helmfile
  • openSUSE: install via zypper in helmfile assuming you are on Tumbleweed; if you are on Leap you must add the kubic repo for your distribution version once before that command, e.g. zypper ar https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/kubic/openSUSE_Leap_\$releasever kubic
  • Windows (using scoop): scoop install helmfile
  • macOS (using homebrew): brew install helmfile
  • Linux/macOS/Windows (using mise): mise use -g helmfile@latest

3: Container

For more details, see run as a container

Make sure to run helmfile init once after installation. Helmfile uses the helm-diff plugin.

Getting Started

Let's start with a simple helmfile and gradually improve it to fit your use-case!

Suppose the helmfile.yaml representing the desired state of your helm releases looks like:

repositories:
- name: prometheus-community
  url: https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts

releases:
- name: prom-norbac-ubuntu
  namespace: prometheus
  chart: prometheus-community/prometheus
  set:
  - name: rbac.create
    value: false

Sync your Kubernetes cluster state to the desired one by running:

helmfile apply

Congratulations! You now have your first Prometheus deployment running inside your cluster.

Iterate on the helmfile.yaml by referencing:

More complex examples

See: multi-env-helmfile

Docs

Please read complete documentation

Contributing

Welcome to contribute together to make helmfile better: contributing doc

Attribution

We use:

  • semtag for automated semver tagging. I greatly appreciate the author(pnikosis)'s effort on creating it and their kindness to share it!

Users

Helmfile has been used by many users in production:

For more users, please see: Users

License

MIT

Star History

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