base on A helm plugin that shows a diff explaining what a helm upgrade would change # Helm Diff Plugin [](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/databus23/helm-diff) [](https://godoc.org/github.com/databus23/helm-diff) [](https://github.com/databus23/helm-diff/blob/master/LICENSE) [](https://zread.ai/databus23/helm-diff) This is a Helm plugin giving you a preview of what a `helm upgrade` would change. It basically generates a diff between the latest deployed version of a release and a `helm upgrade --debug --dry-run`. This can also be used to compare two revisions/versions of your helm release. <a href="https://asciinema.org/a/105326" target="_blank"><img src="https://asciinema.org/a/105326.png" /></a> ## Install ### Using Helm plugin manager (> 2.3.x) *requires helm 3.18+* ```shell helm plugin install https://github.com/databus23/helm-diff ``` **For Helm 4 users:** Helm 4 requires plugin verification by default. Since this plugin does not yet provide provenance artifacts, you need to use the `--verify=false` flag: ```shell helm plugin install https://github.com/databus23/helm-diff --verify=false ``` For more information about Helm 4's plugin verification, see: - [Helm 4 Overview](https://helm.sh/docs/overview) - [HIP-0026: Plugin Provenance](https://github.com/helm/community/blob/main/hips/hip-0026.md) - [Helm Provenance Documentation](https://helm.sh/docs/topics/provenance/) ### Pre Helm 2.3.0 Installation Pick a release tarball from the [releases](https://github.com/databus23/helm-diff/releases) page. Unpack the tarball in your helm plugins directory (`$(helm home)/plugins`). E.g. ``` curl -L $TARBALL_URL | tar -C $(helm home)/plugins -xzv ``` ### From Source #### Prerequisites - GoLang `>= 1.21` Make sure you do not have a version of `helm-diff` installed. You can remove it by running `helm plugin uninstall diff` #### Installation Steps The first step is to download the repository and enter the directory. You can do this via `git clone` or downloading and extracting the release. If you clone via git, remember to checkout the latest tag for the latest release. Next, install the plugin into helm. ```bash make install/helm ``` ## Usage ``` The Helm Diff Plugin * Shows a diff explaining what a helm upgrade would change: This fetches the currently deployed version of a release and compares it to a local chart plus values. This can be used to visualize what changes a helm upgrade will perform. * Shows a diff explaining what had changed between two revisions: This fetches previously deployed versions of a release and compares them. This can be used to visualize what changes were made during revision change. * Shows a diff explaining what a helm rollback would change: This fetches the currently deployed version of a release and compares it to the previously deployed version of the release, that you want to rollback. This can be used to visualize what changes a helm rollback will perform. Usage: diff [flags] diff [command] Available Commands: completion Generate the autocompletion script for the specified shell release Shows diff between release's manifests revision Shows diff between revision's manifests rollback Show a diff explaining what a helm rollback could perform upgrade Show a diff explaining what a helm upgrade would change. version Show version of the helm diff plugin Flags: --allow-unreleased enables diffing of releases that are not yet deployed via Helm -a, --api-versions stringArray Kubernetes api versions used for Capabilities.APIVersions --color color output. You can control the value for this flag via HELM_DIFF_COLOR=[true|false]. If both --no-color and --color are unspecified, coloring enabled only when the stdout is a term and TERM is not "dumb" -C, --context int output NUM lines of context around changes (default -1) --detailed-exitcode return a non-zero exit code when there are changes --devel use development versions, too. Equivalent to version '>0.0.0-0'. If --version is set, this is ignored. --disable-openapi-validation disables rendered templates validation against the Kubernetes OpenAPI Schema --disable-validation disables rendered templates validation against the Kubernetes cluster you are currently pointing to. This is the same validation performed on an install --dry-run string[="client"] --dry-run, --dry-run=client, or --dry-run=true disables cluster access and show diff as if it was install. Implies --install, --reset-values, and --disable-validation. --dry-run=server enables the cluster access with helm-get and the lookup template function. --enable-dns enable DNS lookups when rendering templates -D, --find-renames float32 Enable rename detection if set to any value greater than 0. If specified, the value denotes the maximum fraction of changed content as lines added + removed compared to total lines in a diff for considering it a rename. Only objects of the same Kind are attempted to be matched -h, --help help for diff --include-crds include CRDs in the diffing --include-tests enable the diffing of the helm test hooks --insecure-skip-tls-verify skip tls certificate checks for the chart download --install enables diffing of releases that are not yet deployed via Helm (equivalent to --allow-unreleased, added to match "helm upgrade --install" command --kube-version string Kubernetes version used for Capabilities.KubeVersion --kubeconfig string This flag is ignored, to allow passing of this top level flag to helm --no-color remove colors from the output. If both --no-color and --color are unspecified, coloring enabled only when the stdout is a term and TERM is not "dumb" --no-hooks disable diffing of hooks --normalize-manifests normalize manifests before running diff to exclude style differences from the output --output string Possible values: diff, simple, template, json, structured, dyff. When set to "template", use the env var HELM_DIFF_TPL to specify the template. (default "diff") --post-renderer string the path to an executable to be used for post rendering. If it exists in $PATH, the binary will be used, otherwise it will try to look for the executable at the given path --post-renderer-args stringArray an argument to the post-renderer (can specify multiple) --repo string specify the chart repository url to locate the requested chart --reset-then-reuse-values reset the values to the ones built into the chart, apply the last release's values and merge in any new values. If '--reset-values' or '--reuse-values' is specified, this is ignored --reset-values reset the values to the ones built into the chart and merge in any new values --reuse-values reuse the last release's values and merge in any new values. If '--reset-values' is specified, this is ignored --set stringArray set values on the command line (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: key1=val1,key2=val2) --set-file stringArray set values from respective files specified via the command line (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: key1=path1,key2=path2) --set-json stringArray set JSON values on the command line (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: key1=jsonval1,key2=jsonval2) --set-literal stringArray set STRING literal values on the command line --set-string stringArray set STRING values on the command line (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: key1=val1,key2=val2) --show-secrets do not redact secret values in the output --show-secrets-decoded decode secret values in the output --skip-schema-validation skip validation of the rendered manifests against the Kubernetes OpenAPI schema --strip-trailing-cr strip trailing carriage return on input --suppress stringArray allows suppression of the kinds listed in the diff output (can specify multiple, like '--suppress Deployment --suppress Service') --suppress-output-line-regex stringArray a regex to suppress diff output lines that match -q, --suppress-secrets suppress secrets in the output --take-ownership if set, upgrade will ignore the check for helm annotations and take ownership of the existing resources --three-way-merge use three-way-merge to compute patch and generate diff output -f, --values valueFiles specify values in a YAML file (can specify multiple) (default []) --version string specify the exact chart version to use. If this is not specified, the latest version is used Additional help topcis: diff Use "diff [command] --help" for more information about a command. ``` ### Structured JSON output Set `--output structured` (or `HELM_DIFF_OUTPUT=structured`) to emit machine-readable JSON. Each entry reports the Kubernetes object metadata, resource existence, and per-field changes using JSON Pointer paths: ```shell helm diff upgrade prod api ./charts/api --output structured ``` ```json [ { "apiVersion": "apps/v1", "kind": "Deployment", "namespace": "prod", "name": "api", "changeType": "MODIFY", "resourceStatus": {"oldExists": true, "newExists": true}, "changes": [ {"path": "spec", "field": "replicas", "change": "replace", "oldValue": 2, "newValue": 3}, {"path": "spec.template.spec.containers[0]", "field": "image", "change": "replace", "oldValue": "api:v1", "newValue": "api:v2"} ] } ] ``` When a kind is suppressed via `--suppress`, `changesSuppressed` is set to `true` and field details are omitted. Nested metadata such as labels show the container path (`metadata.labels`) and expose the label key through the `field` property (for example `app.kubernetes.io/version`). ## Commands: ### upgrade: ``` $ helm diff upgrade -h Show a diff explaining what a helm upgrade would change. This fetches the currently deployed version of a release and compares it to a chart plus values. This can be used to visualize what changes a helm upgrade will perform. Usage: diff upgrade [flags] [RELEASE] [CHART] Examples: helm diff upgrade my-release stable/postgresql --values values.yaml # Set HELM_DIFF_IGNORE_UNKNOWN_FLAGS=true to ignore unknown flags # It's useful when you're using `helm-diff` in a `helm upgrade` wrapper. # See https://github.com/databus23/helm-diff/issues/278 for more information. HELM_DIFF_IGNORE_UNKNOWN_FLAGS=true helm diff upgrade my-release stable/postgres --wait # Set HELM_DIFF_USE_UPGRADE_DRY_RUN=true to # use `helm upgrade --dry-run` instead of `helm template` to render manifests from the chart. # See https://github.com/databus23/helm-diff/issues/253 for more information. HELM_DIFF_USE_UPGRADE_DRY_RUN=true helm diff upgrade my-release datadog/datadog # Set HELM_DIFF_THREE_WAY_MERGE=true to # enable the three-way-merge on diff. # This is equivalent to specifying the --three-way-merge flag. # Read the flag usage below for more information on --three-way-merge. HELM_DIFF_THREE_WAY_MERGE=true helm diff upgrade my-release datadog/datadog # Set HELM_DIFF_NORMALIZE_MANIFESTS=true to # normalize the yaml file content when using helm diff. # This is equivalent to specifying the --normalize-manifests flag. # Read the flag usage below for more information on --normalize-manifests. HELM_DIFF_NORMALIZE_MANIFESTS=true helm diff upgrade my-release datadog/datadog # Set HELM_DIFF_OUTPUT_CONTEXT=n to configure the output context to n lines. # This is equivalent to specifying the --context flag. # Read the flag usage below for more information on --context. HELM_DIFF_OUTPUT_CONTEXT=5 helm diff upgrade my-release datadog/datadog Flags: --allow-unreleased enables diffing of releases that are not yet deployed via Helm -a, --api-versions stringArray Kubernetes api versions used for Capabilities.APIVersions -C, --context int output NUM lines of context around changes (default -1) --detailed-exitcode return a non-zero exit code when there are changes --devel use development versions, too. Equivalent to version '>0.0.0-0'. If --version is set, this is ignored. --disable-openapi-validation disables rendered templates validation against the Kubernetes OpenAPI Schema --disable-validation disables rendered templates validation against the Kubernetes cluster you are currently pointing to. This is the same validation performed on an install --dry-run string[="client"] --dry-run, --dry-run=client, or --dry-run=true disables cluster access and show diff as if it was install. Implies --install, --reset-values, and --disable-validation. --dry-run=server enables the cluster access with helm-get and the lookup template function. --enable-dns enable DNS lookups when rendering templates -D, --find-renames float32 Enable rename detection if set to any value greater than 0. If specified, the value denotes the maximum fraction of changed content as lines added + removed compared to total lines in a diff for considering it a rename. Only objects of the same Kind are attempted to be matched -h, --help help for upgrade --include-crds include CRDs in the diffing --include-tests enable the diffing of the helm test hooks --insecure-skip-tls-verify skip tls certificate checks for the chart download --install enables diffing of releases that are not yet deployed via Helm (equivalent to --allow-unreleased, added to match "helm upgrade --install" command --kube-version string Kubernetes version used for Capabilities.KubeVersion --kubeconfig string This flag is ignored, to allow passing of this top level flag to helm --no-hooks disable diffing of hooks --normalize-manifests normalize manifests before running diff to exclude style differences from the output --output string Possible values: diff, simple, template, json, structured, dyff. When set to "template", use the env var HELM_DIFF_TPL to specify the template. (default "diff") --post-renderer string the path to an executable to be used for post rendering. If it exists in $PATH, the binary will be used, otherwise it will try to look for the executable at the given path --post-renderer-args stringArray an argument to the post-renderer (can specify multiple) --repo string specify the chart repository url to locate the requested chart --reset-then-reuse-values reset the values to the ones built into the chart, apply the last release's values and merge in any new values. If '--reset-values' or '--reuse-values' is specified, this is ignored --reset-values reset the values to the ones built into the chart and merge in any new values --reuse-values reuse the last release's values and merge in any new values. If '--reset-values' is specified, this is ignored --set stringArray set values on the command line (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: key1=val1,key2=val2) --set-file stringArray set values from respective files specified via the command line (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: key1=path1,key2=path2) --set-json stringArray set JSON values on the command line (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: key1=jsonval1,key2=jsonval2) --set-literal stringArray set STRING literal values on the command line --set-string stringArray set STRING values on the command line (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: key1=val1,key2=val2) --show-secrets do not redact secret values in the output --show-secrets-decoded decode secret values in the output --skip-schema-validation skip validation of the rendered manifests against the Kubernetes OpenAPI schema --strip-trailing-cr strip trailing carriage return on input --suppress stringArray allows suppression of the kinds listed in the diff output (can specify multiple, like '--suppress Deployment --suppress Service') --suppress-output-line-regex stringArray a regex to suppress diff output lines that match -q, --suppress-secrets suppress secrets in the output --take-ownership if set, upgrade will ignore the check for helm annotations and take ownership of the existing resources --three-way-merge use three-way-merge to compute patch and generate diff output -f, --values valueFiles specify values in a YAML file (can specify multiple) (default []) --version string specify the exact chart version to use. If this is not specified, the latest version is used Global Flags: --color color output. You can control the value for this flag via HELM_DIFF_COLOR=[true|false]. If both --no-color and --color are unspecified, coloring enabled only when the stdout is a term and TERM is not "dumb" --no-color remove colors from the output. If both --no-color and --color are unspecified, coloring enabled only when the stdout is a term and TERM is not "dumb" ``` ### release: ``` $ helm diff release -h This command compares the manifests details of a different releases created from the same chart. The release name may be specified using namespace/release syntax. It can be used to compare the manifests of - release1 with release2 $ helm diff release [flags] release1 release2 Example: $ helm diff release my-prod my-stage $ helm diff release prod/my-prod stage/my-stage Usage: diff release [flags] RELEASE release1 [release2] Flags: -C, --context int output NUM lines of context around changes (default -1) --detailed-exitcode return a non-zero exit code when there are changes -D, --find-renames float32 Enable rename detection if set to any value greater than 0. If specified, the value denotes the maximum fraction of changed content as lines added + removed compared to total lines in a diff for considering it a rename. Only objects of the same Kind are attempted to be matched -h, --help help for release --include-tests enable the diffing of the helm test hooks --normalize-manifests normalize manifests before running diff to exclude style differences from the output --output string Possible values: diff, simple, template, json, structured, dyff. When set to "template", use the env var HELM_DIFF_TPL to specify the template. (default "diff") --show-secrets do not redact secret values in the output --strip-trailing-cr strip trailing carriage return on input --suppress stringArray allows suppression of the kinds listed in the diff output (can specify multiple, like '--suppress Deployment --suppress Service') --suppress-output-line-regex stringArray a regex to suppress diff output lines that match -q, --suppress-secrets suppress secrets in the output Global Flags: --color color output. You can control the value for this flag via HELM_DIFF_COLOR=[true|false]. If both --no-color and --color are unspecified, coloring enabled only when the stdout is a term and TERM is not "dumb" --no-color remove colors from the output. If both --no-color and --color are unspecified, coloring enabled only when the stdout is a term and TERM is not "dumb" ``` ### revision: ``` $ helm diff revision -h This command compares the manifests details of a named release. It can be used to compare the manifests of - latest REVISION with specified REVISION $ helm diff revision [flags] RELEASE REVISION1 Example: $ helm diff revision my-release 2 - REVISION1 with REVISION2 $ helm diff revision [flags] RELEASE REVISION1 REVISION2 Example: $ helm diff revision my-release 2 3 Usage: diff revision [flags] RELEASE REVISION1 [REVISION2] Flags: -C, --context int output NUM lines of context around changes (default -1) --show-secrets-decoded decode secret values in the output --detailed-exitcode return a non-zero exit code when there are changes -D, --find-renames float32 Enable rename detection if set to any value greater than 0. If specified, the value denotes the maximum fraction of changed content as lines added + removed compared to total lines in a diff for considering it a rename. Only objects of the same Kind are attempted to be matched -h, --help help for revision --include-tests enable the diffing of the helm test hooks --normalize-manifests normalize manifests before running diff to exclude style differences from the output --output string Possible values: diff, simple, template, json, structured, dyff. When set to "template", use the env var HELM_DIFF_TPL to specify the template. (default "diff") --show-secrets do not redact secret values in the output --show-secrets-decoded decode secret values in the output --strip-trailing-cr strip trailing carriage return on input --suppress stringArray allows suppression of the kinds listed in the diff output (can specify multiple, like '--suppress Deployment --suppress Service') --suppress-output-line-regex stringArray a regex to suppress diff output lines that match -q, --suppress-secrets suppress secrets in the output Global Flags: --color color output. You can control the value for this flag via HELM_DIFF_COLOR=[true|false]. If both --no-color and --color are unspecified, coloring enabled only when the stdout is a term and TERM is not "dumb" --no-color remove colors from the output. If both --no-color and --color are unspecified, coloring enabled only when the stdout is a term and TERM is not "dumb" ``` ### rollback: ``` $ helm diff rollback -h This command compares the latest manifest details of a named release with specific revision values to rollback. It forecasts/visualizes changes, that a helm rollback could perform. Usage: diff rollback [flags] [RELEASE] [REVISION] Examples: helm diff rollback my-release 2 Flags: -C, --context int output NUM lines of context around changes (default -1) --detailed-exitcode return a non-zero exit code when there are changes -D, --find-renames float32 Enable rename detection if set to any value greater than 0. If specified, the value denotes the maximum fraction of changed content as lines added + removed compared to total lines in a diff for considering it a rename. Only objects of the same Kind are attempted to be matched -h, --help help for rollback --include-tests enable the diffing of the helm test hooks --normalize-manifests normalize manifests before running diff to exclude style differences from the output --output string Possible values: diff, simple, template, json, structured, dyff. When set to "template", use the env var HELM_DIFF_TPL to specify the template. (default "diff") --show-secrets do not redact secret values in the output --show-secrets-decoded decode secret values in the output --strip-trailing-cr strip trailing carriage return on input --suppress stringArray allows suppression of the kinds listed in the diff output (can specify multiple, like '--suppress Deployment --suppress Service') --suppress-output-line-regex stringArray a regex to suppress diff output lines that match -q, --suppress-secrets suppress secrets in the output Global Flags: --color color output. You can control the value for this flag via HELM_DIFF_COLOR=[true|false]. If both --no-color and --color are unspecified, coloring enabled only when the stdout is a term and TERM is not "dumb" --no-color remove colors from the output. If both --no-color and --color are unspecified, coloring enabled only when the stdout is a term and TERM is not "dumb" ``` ## Build Clone the repository into your `$GOPATH` and then build it. ``` $ mkdir -p $GOPATH/src/github.com/databus23/ $ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/databus23/ $ git clone https://github.com/databus23/helm-diff.git $ cd helm-diff $ make install ``` The above will install this plugin into your `$HELM_HOME/plugins` directory. ### Prerequisites - You need to have [Go](http://golang.org) installed. Make sure to set `$GOPATH` ### Running Tests Automated tests are implemented with [*testing*](https://golang.org/pkg/testing/). To run all tests: ``` go test -v ./... ``` ## Release Bump `version` in `plugin.yaml`: ``` $ code plugin.yaml $ git commit -s -m 'Bump helm-diff version to 3.x.y' ``` Set `GITHUB_TOKEN` and run: ``` $ make docker-run-release ``` ", Assign "at most 3 tags" to the expected json: {"id":"5873","tags":[]} "only from the tags list I provide: [{"id":39,"name":"3d-generation","display_name":"3D generation","slug":"3d-generation"},{"id":3,"name":"ai-agent","display_name":"AI agent","slug":"ai-agent"},{"id":8,"name":"ai-coding","display_name":"AI coding assistant","slug":"ai-coding"},{"id":5,"name":"ai-image","display_name":"AI image generation","slug":"ai-image"},{"id":9,"name":"ai-infrastructure","display_name":"AI infrastructure","slug":"ai-infrastructure"},{"id":10,"name":"ai-memory","display_name":"AI memory","slug":"ai-memory"},{"id":11,"name":"ai-skills","display_name":"AI skills","slug":"ai-skills"},{"id":12,"name":"ai-translation","display_name":"AI translation","slug":"ai-translation"},{"id":6,"name":"ai-video","display_name":"AI video generation","slug":"ai-video"},{"id":4,"name":"ai-voice","display_name":"AI voice","slug":"ai-voice"},{"id":7,"name":"ai-workflow","display_name":"AI workflow","slug":"ai-workflow"},{"id":22,"name":"audio-processing","display_name":"Audio processing","slug":"audio-processing"},{"id":29,"name":"authentication","display_name":"Authentication","slug":"authentication"},{"id":51,"name":"bundler","display_name":"Bundler","slug":"bundler"},{"id":41,"name":"chatbot","display_name":"Chatbot","slug":"chatbot"},{"id":27,"name":"cloud-native","display_name":"Cloud native","slug":"cloud-native"},{"id":1,"name":"computer-vision","display_name":"Computer vision","slug":"computer-vision"},{"id":37,"name":"crypto-trading","display_name":"Crypto trading","slug":"crypto-trading"},{"id":57,"name":"curated-list","display_name":"Curated list","slug":"curated-list"},{"id":54,"name":"data-streaming","display_name":"Data streaming","slug":"data-streaming"},{"id":35,"name":"data-visualization","display_name":"Data visualization","slug":"data-visualization"},{"id":16,"name":"database-backup","display_name":"Database backup","slug":"database-backup"},{"id":49,"name":"design-system","display_name":"Design system","slug":"design-system"},{"id":38,"name":"digital-human","display_name":"Digital human","slug":"digital-human"},{"id":34,"name":"document-processing","display_name":"Document processing","slug":"document-processing"},{"id":44,"name":"ecommerce","display_name":"E-commerce","slug":"ecommerce"},{"id":45,"name":"emulator","display_name":"Emulator","slug":"emulator"},{"id":46,"name":"file-management","display_name":"File management","slug":"file-management"},{"id":32,"name":"fintech","display_name":"Fintech","slug":"fintech"},{"id":31,"name":"game-development","display_name":"Game development","slug":"game-development"},{"id":24,"name":"headless-browser","display_name":"Headless browser","slug":"headless-browser"},{"id":52,"name":"headless-cms","display_name":"Headless CMS","slug":"headless-cms"},{"id":36,"name":"home-automation","display_name":"Home automation","slug":"home-automation"},{"id":20,"name":"image-editing","display_name":"Image editing","slug":"image-editing"},{"id":28,"name":"iot","display_name":"IoT","slug":"iot"},{"id":13,"name":"local-llm","display_name":"Local LLM","slug":"local-llm"},{"id":17,"name":"mcp","display_name":"MCP","slug":"mcp"},{"id":47,"name":"monitoring","display_name":"Monitoring","slug":"monitoring"},{"id":2,"name":"nlp","display_name":"NLP","slug":"nlp"},{"id":26,"name":"observability","display_name":"Observability","slug":"observability"},{"id":40,"name":"pentesting","display_name":"Pentesting","slug":"pentesting"},{"id":48,"name":"programming-examples","display_name":"Programming examples","slug":"programming-examples"},{"id":42,"name":"proxy","display_name":"Proxy","slug":"proxy"},{"id":14,"name":"rag","display_name":"RAG","slug":"rag"},{"id":56,"name":"resume-building","display_name":"Resume building","slug":"resume-building"},{"id":33,"name":"robotics","display_name":"Robotics","slug":"robotics"},{"id":30,"name":"search","display_name":"Search","slug":"search"},{"id":43,"name":"self-hosted","display_name":"Self-hosted","slug":"self-hosted"},{"id":50,"name":"static-analysis","display_name":"Static analysis","slug":"static-analysis"},{"id":18,"name":"synthetic-data","display_name":"Synthetic data","slug":"synthetic-data"},{"id":19,"name":"text-to-speech","display_name":"Text to speech","slug":"text-to-speech"},{"id":53,"name":"ui-components","display_name":"UI components","slug":"ui-components"},{"id":15,"name":"vector-database","display_name":"Vector database","slug":"vector-database"},{"id":21,"name":"video-editing","display_name":"Video editing","slug":"video-editing"},{"id":25,"name":"web-scraping","display_name":"Web scraping","slug":"web-scraping"},{"id":55,"name":"webassembly","display_name":"WebAssembly","slug":"webassembly"},{"id":23,"name":"workflow-automation","display_name":"Workflow automation","slug":"workflow-automation"}]" returns me the "expected json"