fluxcd/helm-controller

The GitOps Toolkit Helm reconciler, for declarative Helming

Go

512

1,808 commits

updated Oct 12, 2026

See the code

README

helm-controller

CII Best Practices e2e report license release

The helm-controller is a Kubernetes operator, allowing one to declaratively manage Helm chart releases. It is part of a composable GitOps toolkit and depends on source-controller to acquire the Helm charts from Helm repositories.

The desired state of a Helm release is described through a Kubernetes Custom Resource named HelmRelease. Based on the creation, mutation or removal of a HelmRelease resource in the cluster, Helm actions are performed by the operator.

overview

Features

  • Watches for HelmRelease objects and generates HelmChart objects
  • Supports HelmChart artifacts produced from HelmRepository, GitRepository and Bucket sources
  • Fetches artifacts produced by source-controller from HelmChart and OCIRepository objects
  • Watches HelmChart objects for revision changes (including semver ranges for charts from HelmRepository sources)
  • Performs automated Helm actions, including Helm tests, rollbacks and uninstalls
  • Offers extensive configuration options for automated remediation (rollback, uninstall, retry) on failed Helm install, upgrade or test actions
  • Runs Helm install/upgrade in a specific order, taking into account the depends-on relationship defined in a set of HelmRelease objects
  • Reports Helm release statuses (alerting provided by notification-controller)
  • Built-in Kustomize compatible Helm post renderer, providing support for strategic merge, JSON 6902 and images patches
  • Supports detecting and correcting in-cluster changes compared to the desired state of the Helm release

Guides

Specification

HelmRelease API

gitops-toolkit

fluxcd/helm-controller

The GitOps Toolkit Helm reconciler, for declarative Helming

Go

512

1,808 commits

updated Oct 12, 2026

See the code

README

helm-controller

CII Best Practices e2e report license release

The helm-controller is a Kubernetes operator, allowing one to declaratively manage Helm chart releases. It is part of a composable GitOps toolkit and depends on source-controller to acquire the Helm charts from Helm repositories.

The desired state of a Helm release is described through a Kubernetes Custom Resource named HelmRelease. Based on the creation, mutation or removal of a HelmRelease resource in the cluster, Helm actions are performed by the operator.

overview

Features

  • Watches for HelmRelease objects and generates HelmChart objects
  • Supports HelmChart artifacts produced from HelmRepository, GitRepository and Bucket sources
  • Fetches artifacts produced by source-controller from HelmChart and OCIRepository objects
  • Watches HelmChart objects for revision changes (including semver ranges for charts from HelmRepository sources)
  • Performs automated Helm actions, including Helm tests, rollbacks and uninstalls
  • Offers extensive configuration options for automated remediation (rollback, uninstall, retry) on failed Helm install, upgrade or test actions
  • Runs Helm install/upgrade in a specific order, taking into account the depends-on relationship defined in a set of HelmRelease objects
  • Reports Helm release statuses (alerting provided by notification-controller)
  • Built-in Kustomize compatible Helm post renderer, providing support for strategic merge, JSON 6902 and images patches
  • Supports detecting and correcting in-cluster changes compared to the desired state of the Helm release

Guides

Specification

HelmRelease API

gitops-toolkit

Project health

Overall

8.7/10

Maintained

10/10

Code review

10/10
OpenSSF Scorecard

Latest release

v1.6.5 · Oct 1, 2026

Releases this year

15

Significant stargazers

Yi-Jyun Pan

679 followers · starred Mar 2026

André Bauer

127 followers · starred Sep 2020

Alena Varkockova

102 followers · starred Jul 2020

andrew_li

14 followers · starred Apr 2022