Helm Chart Values Editor

A values.yaml file is the primary way to customize a Helm chart for your specific deployment. Helm charts are parameterized templates — the chart author defines configurable options (replicas, image tag, resource limits, ingress host, etc.) and you supply your desired values in values.yaml. This separation means you can upgrade a chart version while preserving your configuration, and share the same chart across dev/staging/prod with different values files. Think of values.yaml as your chart's configuration contract.

Both override default chart values, but they work differently. -f values.yaml (or --values) loads a full YAML file and is ideal for managing many settings in version control. --set key=value passes individual overrides on the command line and is useful for one-off changes or CI/CD pipelines where you inject secrets at deploy time. The order of precedence (highest to lowest) is: --set > -f right-to-left > chart defaults. You can combine them — use -f values.yaml for most settings and --set to inject environment-specific secrets.

When you pass multiple -f flags, later files take precedence over earlier ones: helm install -f base.yaml -f prod.yaml means prod.yaml overrides base.yaml. This enables layered configuration — maintain a base values file for shared settings, then overlay environment-specific files for dev, staging, and prod. The chart's default values.yaml is always the lowest precedence baseline. --set overrides everything. This pattern is the Helm equivalent of Kustomize overlays.

Use helm show values <chart> to display the chart's default values.yaml with all supported options and their defaults. Example: helm show values ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx. You can also check helm show chart <chart> for metadata and helm show readme <chart> for documentation. After installing a release, helm get values <release-name> shows the values currently in use. The artifact hub at artifacthub.io also documents chart values with descriptions.

helm upgrade --install is an idempotent deploy command that installs a chart if it doesn't exist, or upgrades it if it does. This makes it safe to use in CI/CD pipelines without checking if a release already exists. Pair it with --atomic (rolls back on failure) and --wait (waits for all pods to be ready) for robust deployments. Example: helm upgrade --install my-app ./chart -f values.yaml --atomic --timeout 5m0s --namespace production --create-namespace. This is the recommended pattern for GitOps and automated deployments.

The recommended pattern is layered values files. Create a base values.yaml with shared defaults, then environment-specific overlay files: values-dev.yaml, values-staging.yaml, values-prod.yaml. Each overlay only contains settings that differ from the base. Deploy with: helm upgrade --install my-app ./chart -f values.yaml -f values-prod.yaml. Store all values files in Git. Never put secrets directly in values files — use --set for sensitive values at deploy time, or integrate a secrets manager like Vault, Sealed Secrets, or External Secrets Operator.