Helm 3.0: Tillerless Charts for the Enterprise

Introduction

After years of feedback, the Helm project released Helm 3.0 on November 13, 2019, delivering a simplified architecture without Tiller while doubling down on security and chart reusability.

Architecture Overhaul

Tiller Removal: Helm now talks directly to the Kubernetes API using kubeconfig credentials.
Release Storage: Uses Secrets or ConfigMaps in target namespaces, improving multi-tenant isolation.
Go Modules: Modern dependency management and reproducible builds for Helm itself.

Features for Chart Authors

Library Charts: Share templates across charts without producing installable artifacts.
Chart Versioning: Enhanced Chart.yaml schema with type validation and dependency metadata.
Helm Test Hooks: Standardized success/failure semantics for integration checks.

Security & Governance

RBAC-Friendly: Honors namespace-scoped permissions, enabling self-service teams.
Chart Provenance: helm verify reinforces supply chain controls.
OCI Registry Support (Experimental): Push/pull charts using container registries.

Getting Started

helm repo add stable https://charts.helm.sh/stable
helm install observability stable/prometheus-operator --namespace monitoring

Upgrade from Helm 2 with the migration plugin:

helm 2to3 convert my-release
helm 2to3 cleanup

Summary

Aspect	Details
Release Date	November 13, 2019
Headline Features	Tiller removal, library charts, RBAC-first design
Why it Matters	Aligns Helm with Kubernetes security expectations while reducing operational friction

Helm 3.0 makes chart management feel native to Kubernetes teams, sealing its role as the package manager for cloud native platforms.