Searching Helm Charts
1. Searching Repositories
| Command | Description | Flags |
|---|---|---|
| helm search repo | Search for charts in the configured repositories | --devel to include development charts--regexp to filter by regex pattern--version to specify version constraint |
Note: By default,
helm search repo only shows charts from repositories that have been added using helm repo add.
2. Searching Artifact Hub
| Field | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| name | Chart name to search for | nginx |
| repo | Repository name to filter by | bitnami |
| version | Specific version to search for | 10.2.1 |
| maintainer | Chart maintainer name | Bitnami Team |
| keywords | Keywords to search in chart metadata | web server |
Note: Artifact Hub is the default search source for Helm charts. It aggregates charts from multiple repositories.
3. Using Search Keywords
| Keyword Type | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| name | Filter charts by name pattern | nginx, mysql* |
| version | Filter charts by version | 1.2.3, >=2.0.0 |
| repo | Filter charts by repository name | bitnami, stable |
| maintainer | Filter charts by maintainer name | bitnami, helm |
| appVersion | Filter charts by app version | 1.20.0, <2.0.0 |
| tag | Filter charts by tag | database, web |
4. Filtering by Version
| Filter Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| --version | Specify the exact version of the chart to filter by | helm search repo my-chart --version 1.2.3 |
| --version-range | Filter charts within a version range using semantic versioning | helm search repo my-chart --version-range '1.0.0-2.0.0' |
| --devel | Include development versions (alpha, beta, rc) in search results | helm search repo my-chart --devel |
5. Using Regular Expressions
| Pattern | Description | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| ^nginx | Matches charts starting with "nginx" | helm search repo '^nginx.*' |
| .*-stable$ | Matches charts ending with "-stable" | helm search repo '.*-stable$' |
| .*-beta.* | Matches charts containing "-beta" | helm search repo '.*-beta.*' |
Note: Helm uses Go's regex engine, which supports basic POSIX-style patterns.
Warning: Complex regex can slow down search performance on large repositories.
6. Limiting Search Results
| Option | Values | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| --limit | int |
Limits the number of results returned |
| --offset | int |
Skips the first N results before returning results |
| --filter | string |
Filters results by a specific string in the chart name or description |
7. Viewing All Versions
| Command | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| helm search repo | Search for charts in the repository | Use with --versions to list all versions |
| helm search repo <chart-name> | Search for a specific chart | Lists all versions of the specified chart |
Note: The
--versions flag is required to see all available versions of a chart.
8. Searching with Output Format
| Option | Values | Description |
|---|---|---|
| --output | table, json, yaml |
Format of the output |
| --filter | string |
Filter results by name or version |
| --version | string |
Specify a version to search for |
9. Finding Latest Version
| Property | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| helm search repo | Searches for charts in the repository | helm search repo <span class="highlight">stable/nginx-ingress</span> |
| --version | Specify a version constraint | helm search repo <span class="highlight">stable/nginx-ingress</span> --version <span class="highlight">1.2.3</span> |
| --devel | Include development versions (alpha, beta, rc) | helm search repo <span class="highlight">stable/nginx-ingress</span> --devel |
10. Searching Specific Repository
| Property | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| helm search repo | Searches for charts in the specified repository | helm search repo my-repo |
| helm search repo <repo-name>/<chart-name> | Searches for a specific chart in a repository | helm search repo bitnami/nginx |