Searching Helm Charts
1. Searching Repositories
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
helm search repo <term> | Search local repo cache |
helm search repo <term> --devel | Include pre-release versions |
helm search repo <term> -l | List all versions (long output) |
2. Searching Artifact Hub
Example: Discover charts across all public repos
helm search hub wordpress
helm search hub wordpress --max-col-width 80
helm search hub wordpress -o json | jq '.[] | {name,url}'| Flag | Purpose |
|---|---|
--endpoint | Use custom hub (default https://hub.helm.sh / artifacthub.io) |
--list-repo-url | Show repo URL for each result |
3. Using Search Keywords
| Query | Matches |
|---|---|
helm search repo database | Name, description, keywords field |
helm search repo "postgres OR mysql" | Boolean operators not supported — use regex |
helm search repo bitnami/postgres | Repo-scoped prefix match |
4. Filtering by Version
Example: Constraint queries
helm search repo nginx --version "1.2.3" # exact
helm search repo nginx --version "^1.2.0" # >=1.2.0,<2.0.0
helm search repo nginx --version "~1.2.0" # >=1.2.0,<1.3.0
helm search repo nginx --version ">=1.0 <2" # range5. Using Regular Expressions
| Pattern | Behavior |
|---|---|
helm search repo --regexp '^bitnami/postgres' | Anchor at start |
helm search repo --regexp 'nginx|apache' | Alternation |
helm search repo --regexp '.*-operator$' | Suffix match |
6. Limiting Search Results
| Flag | Purpose |
|---|---|
--max-col-width <n> | Truncate description column |
-o yaml | yq '.[0:10]' | Top-N via post-processing |
helm search hub <term> --max-col-width 50 | Compact hub results |
7. Viewing All Versions
| Flag | Effect |
|---|---|
--versions / -l | List every published version |
--devel | Include alpha/beta/rc tags |
8. Searching with Output Format
| Format | Use case |
|---|---|
-o table | Human-readable (default) |
-o json | Pipe into jq for scripting |
-o yaml | Easy diffing with yq |
9. Finding Latest Version
Example: Script latest stable version
helm search repo bitnami/nginx -o json \
| jq -r '.[0].version'
# Latest including pre-release:
helm search repo bitnami/nginx --devel -o json | jq -r '.[0].version'10. Searching Specific Repository
| Command | Scope |
|---|---|
helm search repo bitnami/ | All charts in bitnami repo only |
helm search repo bitnami/redis | Specific chart in repo |
helm search repo --regexp '^prom' | Repos starting with prom |