Helm Values Management

Comprehensive guidance for managing Helm values across environments, understanding override precedence, and advanced configuration strategies.

When to Use

Use this skill automatically when:

• User needs to configure Helm deployments with custom values

• User mentions environment-specific configurations (dev/staging/prod)

• User asks about value override precedence or merging

• User needs to manage secrets or sensitive configuration

• User wants to understand what values were deployed

• User needs to validate or inspect values

Value Override Precedence

Values are merged with right-most precedence (last wins):

1. Chart defaults (values.yaml in chart) ↓
2. Parent chart values (if subchart) ↓
3. Previous release values (--reuse-values) ↓
4. Values files in order (-f values1.yaml -f values2.yaml) ↓
5. Individual overrides (--set, --set-string, --set-json, --set-file) ↑ HIGHEST PRECEDENCE

Example Precedence

Chart values.yaml

replicaCount: 1 image: tag: "1.0.0"

-f base.yaml

replicaCount: 2

-f production.yaml

image: tag: "2.0.0"

--set replicaCount=5

RESULT:

replicaCount: 5 (from --set, highest precedence)

image.tag: "2.0.0" (from production.yaml)

Core Value Commands

View Default Values

Show chart default values

helm show values <chart>

Show values from specific chart version

helm show values <chart> --version 1.2.3

Save defaults to file

helm show values bitnami/nginx > default-values.yaml

View Deployed Values

Get values used in deployed release

helm get values <release> --namespace <namespace>

Get ALL values (including defaults)

helm get values <release> --namespace <namespace> --all

Get values in different formats

helm get values <release> -n <namespace> -o json

Get values from specific revision

helm get values <release> -n <namespace> --revision 2

Set Values During Install/Upgrade

Using values file

helm install myapp ./chart
--namespace prod
--values values.yaml

Using multiple values files (right-most wins)

helm install myapp ./chart
--namespace prod
-f values/base.yaml
-f values/production.yaml

Using --set for individual values

helm install myapp ./chart
--namespace prod
--set replicaCount=3
--set image.tag=v2.0.0

Using --set-string to force string type

helm install myapp ./chart
--namespace prod
--set-string version="1.0"

Using --set-json for complex structures

helm install myapp ./chart
--namespace prod
--set-json 'nodeSelector={"disktype":"ssd","region":"us-west"}'

Using --set-file to read value from file

helm install myapp ./chart
--namespace prod
--set-file tlsCert=./certs/tls.crt

Value Reuse Strategies

Reuse existing values, merge with new

helm upgrade myapp ./chart
--namespace prod
--reuse-values
--set image.tag=v2.0.0

Reset to chart defaults, ignore existing values

helm upgrade myapp ./chart
--namespace prod
--reset-values
-f new-values.yaml

Multi-Environment Value Management

Directory Structure

project/ ├── charts/ │ └── myapp/ # Helm chart │ ├── Chart.yaml │ ├── values.yaml # Chart defaults │ └── templates/ └── values/ # Environment-specific values ├── common.yaml # Shared across all environments ├── dev.yaml # Development overrides ├── staging.yaml # Staging overrides ├── production.yaml # Production overrides └── secrets/ # Sensitive values (gitignored) ├── dev.yaml ├── staging.yaml └── production.yaml

Common Values (values/common.yaml)

Shared configuration across all environments

app: name: myapp labels: team: platform component: api

service: type: ClusterIP port: 8080

ingress: enabled: true className: nginx annotations: cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: letsencrypt

resources: requests: cpu: 100m memory: 128Mi

Deployment Commands

Deploy to dev

helm upgrade --install myapp ./charts/myapp
--namespace dev
--create-namespace
-f values/common.yaml
-f values/dev.yaml
-f values/secrets/dev.yaml

Deploy to staging

helm upgrade --install myapp ./charts/myapp
--namespace staging
--create-namespace
-f values/common.yaml
-f values/staging.yaml
-f values/secrets/staging.yaml
--atomic --wait

Deploy to production

helm upgrade --install myapp ./charts/myapp
--namespace production
--create-namespace
-f values/common.yaml
-f values/production.yaml
-f values/secrets/production.yaml
--atomic --wait --timeout 10m

Value Syntax & Types

Simple Values

String

name: myapp tag: "v1.0.0" # Quote to ensure string

Number

replicaCount: 3 port: 8080

Boolean

enabled: true debug: false

Null

database: null

Nested Values

Nested objects

image: repository: nginx tag: "1.21.0" pullPolicy: IfNotPresent

Access in template: {{ .Values.image.repository }}

Lists/Arrays

Simple list

tags:

• api
• web
• production

List of objects

env:

• name: DATABASE_URL value: postgres://db:5432/myapp
• name: REDIS_URL value: redis://cache:6379

Setting Values via CLI

Simple value

--set name=myapp

Nested value (use dot notation)

--set image.tag=v2.0.0 --set ingress.annotations."cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer"=letsencrypt

List values (use array index or {})

--set tags={api,web,prod}

Complex JSON structures

--set-json 'nodeSelector={"disk":"ssd","region":"us-west"}'

Force string (prevents numeric conversion)

--set-string version="1.0"

Read value from file

--set-file cert=./tls.crt

Value Validation & Testing

Template with Values

Render templates with values

helm template myapp ./chart --values values.yaml

Validate against Kubernetes API

helm install myapp ./chart
--values values.yaml
--dry-run --validate

Check Computed Values

See what values will be used (before install)

helm template myapp ./chart
--values values.yaml
--debug 2>&1 | grep -A 100 "COMPUTED VALUES"

See what values were used (after install)

helm get values myapp --namespace prod --all

Test Different Value Combinations

Test with minimal values

helm template myapp ./chart --set image.tag=test

Test with full production values

helm template myapp ./chart
-f values/common.yaml
-f values/production.yaml

For detailed environment value examples, schema validation JSON, secret management options, template value handling patterns, best practices, and troubleshooting, see REFERENCE.md.

Agentic Optimizations

Context Command

View values (JSON) helm get values <release> -n <ns> -o json

All values (JSON) helm get values <release> -n <ns> --all -o json

Computed values helm template myapp ./chart -f values.yaml --debug 2>&1 | grep -A 50 "COMPUTED VALUES"

Validate schema helm install myapp ./chart -f values.yaml --dry-run 2>&1 | head -50

Related Skills

• Helm Release Management - Using values during install/upgrade

• Helm Debugging - Troubleshooting value errors

• Helm Chart Development - Creating charts with good value design

References

• Helm Values Files

• Helm Schema Validation

• Helm Secrets Plugin

• External Secrets Operator