Helm Blog
Helm 4 Released
On Wednesday November 12th, during the Helm 4 presentation at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon, Helm v4.0.0 was released. This is the first new major version of Helm in 6 years.
What's New
Helm v3 has served the Kubernetes community well for many years. During that time we saw new ways to use Helm, new applications installed via charts, the rise of Artifact Hub, and numerous tools that build on top of Helm. We also saw where we wanted to add features but the internal architecture of Helm didn't provide a path forward without breaking public APIs in the SDK. Helm 4 makes those changes to enable new features now and into the future.
Some of the new features include:
- Redesigned plugin system that supports Web Assembly based plugins
- Post-renderers are now plugins
- Server side apply is now supported
- Improved resource watching, to support waiting, based on kstatus
- Local Content-based caching (e.g. for charts)
- Logging via slog enabling SDK logging to integrate with modern loggers
- Reproducible/Idempotent builds of chart archives
- Updated SDK API including support for multiple chart API versions (new experimental v3 chart API version coming soon)
You can learn about more of the changes in the Helm 4 Overview.
Helm v3 Support
When a major version of software comes out, it takes awhile to make the transition. Helm v3 will continue to be supported to enable a clean transition period. The dates of continued support are:
- Bug fixes until July 8th 2026.
- Security fixes until November 11th 2026.
Helm releases updates on Wednesdays (typically the 2nd Wednesday in a month) and these dates correspond with release schedule dates. During this time there will be NO features backported other than updates to the Kubernetes client libraries that enable support of new Kubernetes versions.
Learn More
You can learn about the Helm changes in the overview or find all the changes in the full changelog. The documentation shares many more details as you can find all the ways Helm has stayed the same and the new features you can take advantage of.
Helm @ KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA '25
The Helm team is headed to KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA '25 in Atlanta, Georgia next week and it's truly a special one for us! This time around, as we celebrate our 10th birthday (fun fact, Helm was launched at the first KubeCon in 2015), we will also be releasing the highly anticipated Helm 4! Join us for a series of exciting activities throughout the week -- read on for more details!
Helm Booth in Project Pavilion
Don't miss out on meeting our project maintainers at the Helm booth - we'll be hanging out the second half of each day. Drop by to ask questions, learn about what's in Helm 4, and pick up special Hazel swag celebrating Helm's 10th birthday!
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TUES Nov 11 @ 03:30 PM - 07:45 PM ET
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WED Nov 12 @ 02:00 PM - 05:00 PM ET
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THUR Nov 13 @ 12:30 PM - 02:00 PM ET
LOCATION: 8B, back side of Flux and across from Argo
Tuesday November 11, 2025
Simplifying Advanced AI Model Serving on Kubernetes Using Helm Charts
TIME: 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM ET
LOCATION: Building B | Level 4 | B401-402
SPEAKERS: Ajay Vohra & Caron Zhang
The AI model serving landscape on Kubernetes presents practitioners with an overwhelming array of technology choices: From inference servers like Ray Serve and Triton Inference Server, inference engines like vLLM, and orchestration platforms like Ray Cluster and KServe. While this diversity drives innovation, it also creates complexity. Teams often prematurely standardize on limited technology stacks to manage this complexity.
This talk introduces an innovative Helm-based approach that abstracts the complexity of AI model serving while preserving the flexibility to leverage the best tools for each use case. Our solution is accelerator agnostic, and provides a consistent YAML interface for deploying and experimenting with various serving technologies.
We'll demonstrate this approach through two concrete examples of multi-node, multi-accelerator model serving with auto scaling: 1/ Ray Serve + vLLM + Ray Cluster, and 2/ LeaderWorkerSet + Triton Inference Server + vLLM + Ray Cluster + HPA.
Wednesday November 12, 2025
Maintainer Track: Introducing Helm 4
TIME: 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM ET
LOCATION: Building C | Level 3 | Georgia Ballroom 1
SPEAKERS: Matt Farina & Robert Sirchia (Helm Maintainers)
The wait is over! After six years with Helm v3, Helm v4 is finally here. In this session you'll learn about Helm v4, why there was 6 years between major versions (from backwards compatible feature development to maintainer ups and downs), what's new in Helm v4, how long Helm v3 will still be supported, and what comes next. Could that include a Helm v5?
Contribfest: Hands-On With Helm 4: Wasm Plugins, OCI, and Resource Sequencing. Oh My!
TIME: 02:15pm - 03:30 PM ET
LOCATION: Building B | Level 2 | B207
SPEAKERS: Andrew Block, Scott Rigby, & George Jenkins (Helm Maintainers)
Join Helm maintainers for an interactive session contributing to core Helm and building integrations with some of Helm 4's emerging features. We'll guide contributors through creating Helm 4's newest enhancements including WebAssembly plugins, enhancements to how OCI content is manged, and implementing resource sequencing for controlled deployment order. Attendees will explore how to build Download/Postrender/CLI plugins in WebAssembly, develop capabilities related to changes to Helm's management of OCI content including repository prefixes and aliases, and use approaches for sequencing chart deployments beyond Helm's traditional mechanisms.
This session is geared toward anyone interested in Helm development including leveraging and building upon some of the latest features associated with Helm 4!
Helm 4 Release Party
TIME: 06:00 PM - 09:00 PM EST
LOCATION: Max Lager's Wood-Fired Grill & Brewery
Replicated and the CNCF are throwing a Helm 4 Release Party to celebrate the release of Helm 4! Drop by for a low country boil and hang out with the Helm project maintainers for the night! See the invitation here, and don't forget to save your spot – RSVP here.
Thursday November 13, 2025
Mission Abort: Intercepting Dangerous Deletes Before Helm Hits Apply
TIME: 01:45 PM - 02:15 PM ET
LOCATION: Building B | Level 5 | Thomas Murphy Ballroom 4
SPEAKERS: Payal Godhani
What if your next Helm deployment silently deletes a LoadBalancer, a Gateway, or an entire namespace? We’ve lived that nightmare—multiple times. In this talk, we’ll share how we turned painful Sev1 outages into a resilient, guardrail-first deployment strategy. By integrating Helm Diff and Argo CD Diff, we built a system that scans every deployment for destructive changes—like the removal of LoadBalancers, KGateways, Services, PVCs, or Namespaces—and blocks them unless explicitly approved. This second-layer approval acts as a safety circuit for your release pipelines. No guesswork. No blind deploys. Just real-time visibility into what’s about to break—before it actually does. Whether you’re managing a single cluster or an entire fleet, this talk will show you how to stop fearing Helm and start trusting it again. Because resilience isn’t about avoiding failure—it’s about learning, adapting, and building guardrails that protect everyone.
Helm Turns 10
Ten years ago, in a hackathon shortly after the release of Kubernetes 1.1.0, Helm was born.
commit ecad6e2ef9523a0218864ec552bbfc724f0b9d3d
Author: Matt Butcher <[email protected]>
Date: Mon Oct 19 17:43:26 2015 -0600
initial add
The first commit can be found on the helm-classic Git repository where the codebase for Helm v1 is located. This is the original Helm, before it merged with Deployment Manager and was folded into the Kubernetes project.
This commit was just the beginning. Helm would be shown off at the first KubeCon, just a few weeks later. From there Helm development would take off and a community of developers and charts would follow.
Happy 10th Birthday, Helm!
Helm Turns 10
Ten years ago, in a hackathon shortly after the release of Kubernetes 1.1.0, Helm was born.
commit ecad6e2ef9523a0218864ec552bbfc724f0b9d3d
Author: Matt Butcher <[email protected]>
Date: Mon Oct 19 17:43:26 2015 -0600
initial add
The first commit can be found on the helm-classic Git repository where the codebase for Helm v1 is located. This is the original Helm, before it merged with Deployment Manager and was folded into the Kubernetes project.
Path To Releasing Helm v4
The first Alpha for Helm v4 has been released. Now that Helm v4 development is in the home stretch, we wanted to share the details on what's happening and how the broader community can get involved.
Alpha Period
With the start of September, there is a freeze on new major features for Helm v4. This begins the Alpha phase, where API breaking changes will still happen, but the focus turns to stability and making sure the existing changes work as expected.
If you're a Helm user, during this period you can test out the current capabilities and provide feedback where things aren't working as expected. Just remember, this is alpha quality software and changes are still occurring.
For Helm SDK users, now is a good time to look at the API to see if there are any concerns with the design changes along with any impacts to your efforts.
The Alpha period runs through the month of September.
Beta Period
The beta period starts in October. At this point the focus is on stability in preparation for release. API breaking changes should be complete and the focus transitions to fixing any bugs to ensure there is a stable release.
Testers should file bugs as they encounter any issues.
Per release schedule policy, once the first beta version is available, the final 4.0.0 release date will be chosen and announced.
Release Candidates
At the end of October, the first release candidate will be created. This represents what we think will be released as Helm v4. If there are any major issues, they will be fixed and a new release candidate will be made.
? Release ?
The release is planned for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2025. in mid November, which is 6 years after the release of Helm v3 and 10 years after the creation of Helm. More details on the release will come.
Path To Releasing Helm v4
The first Alpha for Helm v4 has been released. Now that Helm v4 development is in the home stretch, we wanted to share the details on what's happening and how the broader community can get involved.