Basics

Perfect 👍 You want the same practical daily-use cheat sheet but for Helm. Here’s a structured list like the Git one — covering install, upgrade, rollback, diff, repo management, etc.

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🧭 Helm Daily Commands Cheat Sheet

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🔹 Basics

• Check Helm version

  helm version 3.18

• Show help

  helm help

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🔹 Chart Repositories

• Add repo

  helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
  # here bitnami bitnami here = repo name (alias/identifier you give locally)
  Helm repository URL 

• List repos

  helm repo list

• Update repo (fetch latest charts)

  helm repo update # add latest version of charts and repo

• Search charts

  helm search repo nginx # u will see bitnami nginx related chart

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🔹 Install & Upgrade

• Install a release

  helm install my-nginx bitnami/nginx # my-nginx is release name and chart name

• Upgrade (or install if not exists)

  helm upgrade --install my-nginx bitnami/nginx  # install and 
  updates an existing release with a new chart version or config.Pass custom values
  every upgrade create new revision (release version for rollback)

• helm install my-nginx bitnami/nginx -f values.yaml

• Set inline values

  helm install my-nginx bitnami/nginx --set replicaCount=3 
  # --set to pass key=value
  # if run cmd twice u get: Error: cannot re-use a name that is still in use
  

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helm get

• Scope: Looks at a release already installed in your cluster.

• Purpose: Fetches information about a deployed release.

helm show

• Scope: Looks at a chart (local or remote repo), not the cluster.

• Purpose: Displays chart metadata, templates, or default values before install.

🔹 Release Management

• List all releases

  helm list -A  # list installed releases

• Get release status

  helm status my-nginx  # same as helm list but for specific rrleease

• Get release values

  helm get values my-nginx  
  USER-SUPPLIED VALUES:
  replicaCount: 3
  Helm get/shows only the values you explicitly supplied (via --set or -f values.yaml).

• Get all manifests applied

  helm get manifest my-nginx  # like deployment, service and other objects

• History of release (with revisions)

  helm history my-nginx  #  show total revision of releases

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🔹 Rollback & Delete

• Rollback to previous version

  helm rollback my-nginx 1  # release-name and revision number

• Uninstall release

  helm uninstall my-nginx

• Uninstall and delete history

  helm uninstall my-nginx --keep-history=false

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🔹 Debugging & Diff

• Template (render manifests without applying)

  helm template my-nginx bitnami/nginx

• Dry-run (simulate install/upgrade)

  helm upgrade --install my-nginx bitnami/nginx --dry-run --debug
  # only show plan  and not install chart

• Diff changes (requires plugin)

  helm plugin install https://github.com/databus23/helm-diff
  helm diff upgrade my-nginx bitnami/nginx

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🔹 Chart Development

• Create a new chart

  controlplane:~$ helm create mychart
  Creating mychart

• Lint a chart

  helm lint ./mychart
  It validates:
  Chart.yaml → required fields (name, version, apiVersion, etc.).
  values.yaml → syntax correctness (YAML parsing).
  templates/ → Helm template syntax (e.g., {{ .Values.foo }}).
  Best practices → warns if recommended fields are missing.

• Package a chart

  controlplane:~$ helm package ./mychart
  Successfully packaged chart and saved it to file archive: /root/mychart-0.1.0.tgz
  
  # Once your chart (mychart-0.1.0.tgz) is ready, 
  # you install it into a Kubernetes cluster:
  helm install myapp ./mychart  # release-name chart-name with path
  

• Push chart to repo (OCI)

  helm push mychart-0.1.0.tgz oci://my-registry/charts

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🔹 Useful Daily Shortcuts

• Upgrade with forced recreation

  helm upgrade --install myapp ./chart --force --recreate-pods

• Check resources in release namespace

  kubectl get all -n <namespace>

• Delete failed release and reinstall

  helm uninstall myapp && helm install myapp ./chart

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✅ This list covers 90% of daily Helm usage: installing, upgrading, rollback, debugging, managing repos, and chart development.

Pavan, do you want me to also make a side-by-side comparison table (command vs purpose) for Helm, like we discussed for Git? That way you’ll have a ready interview/cheat-sheet reference.