After nearly a year in beta, Helm 4.0 is now GA. This is the first major version since 2019 and brings a handful of breaking changes alongside major ergonomic improvements.
Post-Rendering Pipeline
The new post-renderer pipeline replaces the single --post-renderer flag, allowing chains of transformations with well-defined inputs and outputs. Kustomize, yq, and policy tools like Kyverno plug in cleanly without shell glue.
OCI Native
OCI registries are now the default chart distribution mechanism. The classic index.yaml HTTP repository format still works for backwards compatibility but is deprecated. Artifact Hub indexes OCI charts from all major registries.
Breaking Changes
- Helm 2 charts no longer supported (use
helm convertfrom Helm 3) - Minimum Kubernetes version is 1.28
- Several deprecated template functions removed
helm testruns in parallel by default
