Helm
Manage Helm releases without leaving the app. Listing, inspection, rollback, diff, and uninstall all go through the Kubernetes API directly (no helm CLI required). Install and upgrade shell out to the local helm binary.
List releases
Use the Kind selector (Cmd/Ctrl + K) → Helm > Releases.
The table shows: NAME, NAMESPACE, CHART, APP VERSION, STATUS, HEALTH, REVISION, UPDATED.
How it works
Helm stores each release as a Kubernetes Secret of type helm.sh/release.v1. Kubezilla reads those secrets, base64-decodes, gzip-decompresses, and parses the JSON payload — no CLI round-trip.
Release Info window
Double-click a release (or right-click → Info). A tabbed viewport opens:
Overview
Release metadata: name, namespace, chart, app version, status, revision, updated timestamp, first-deployed timestamp. Clickable links to any resources managed by the release.
Resources
Lists every Kubernetes resource the release manages, grouped by kind. Each row:
- Is clickable — opens that resource's Info window.
- Shows a health pill: green (healthy), yellow (pending), red (error).
- Has action buttons: Logs, Restart, Shell, Delete (where applicable).
Health checks
Health runs asynchronously on the parsed manifest:
| Resource | Health rule |
|---|---|
| Deployment, StatefulSet | status.readyReplicas >= spec.replicas |
| Resources with Conditions | Available or Ready condition = True |
| Everything else | Shown as OK if present |
Notes
Release notes rendered in a read-only code editor.
Values
User-supplied overrides, YAML-highlighted.
Manifest
The rendered YAML manifest, split into collapsible sections per resource.
Rollback
- Right-click the release → Rollback.
- A revision picker opens — pick a prior revision.
- Rollback creates a new release secret with a bumped revision number (same mechanism as
helm rollback).
Diff revisions
Right-click → Diff Revisions.
- Pick two revisions.
- Side-by-side YAML diff opens (same view as resource diff).
- Values only toggle — shows just user values, not the full manifest. Useful for spotting config drift.
Install
From Dots menu → Helm Install, or from Release Info → Upgrade/Install button.
Dialog fields:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Release name | New release name |
| Chart | e.g. bitnami/nginx, ./my-chart, oci://... |
| Version | Optional chart version |
| Namespace | Target namespace |
| Values | YAML editor for overrides |
Click Install. This shells out to the helm CLI (helm install). If helm is not on your PATH, Kubezilla shows an error with a link to download it.
Errors from Helm (chart not found, values invalid, etc.) are captured and displayed inline.
Upgrade
Right-click a release → Upgrade.
The dialog is preloaded with the release's current chart, version, and values. Edit and click Upgrade.
Uses helm upgrade --install under the hood.
Uninstall
Right-click → Uninstall (or Delete on the Helm releases table — deletion routes to uninstall for Helm kinds).
- Confirmation dialog lists what will be removed.
- Removes all release secrets (every revision), not just the latest.
- Managed resources are also cleaned up (unless they have
helm.sh/resource-policy: keep).
Re-download fallback
If helm is missing or reports a chart download failure, Kubezilla can retry with --repository-config / --repository-cache pointed at a fresh scratch dir. This handles stale cached indexes without you manually running helm repo update.
Tips
- Resources tab is your best friend for debugging failed releases — failing health pills point directly at the broken workload.
- The Manifest tab is the rendered template; copy from there rather than re-running
helm templateyourself. - Rollback is safe to try — it's just another release revision; you can always rollback again to forward.