Helm 3.14: Chart Management and OCI Excellence
K8s Guru
3 min read
Table of Contents
Introduction
Helm is still the default way many teams package and ship Kubernetes apps—even when they’ve adopted GitOps. That means Helm releases aren’t just “new CLI features”: they influence how safely you can distribute charts, verify provenance, and standardize on OCI registries.
Helm 3.14, released on December 10, 2025, strengthens those fundamentals with improvements in chart management, security features, and OCI workflows—aimed at making Helm-based delivery more reliable in enterprise pipelines.
Why this matters in practice
- OCI as the distribution backbone: better OCI support reduces friction when registries replace chart repos.
- Supply chain confidence: signing and verification improvements help teams treat charts as auditable artifacts.
- Automation friendliness: tighter CI/CD and GitOps integration is what keeps Helm usable at scale.
Chart Management
- Chart repository improvements provide better management of chart repositories with enhanced search, version management, and dependency resolution.
- Chart dependencies enhancements enable better handling of chart dependencies with automatic updates and conflict resolution.
- Chart versioning improvements enable better management of chart versions with semantic versioning and rollback capabilities.
- Chart testing enhancements provide comprehensive validation of charts including linting, template testing, and integration testing.
Security Features
- Chart signing improvements provide better verification of chart integrity with cryptographic signatures and provenance files.
- OCI registry support enables secure chart distribution through OCI registries with authentication and authorization.
- RBAC enhancements provide better access control for chart operations with fine-grained permissions.
- Audit logging tracks all chart operations for compliance and security monitoring with detailed audit trails.
OCI Support
- OCI artifact support enables distribution of charts through OCI registries with full compatibility with container registries.
- Helm OCI improvements provide better integration with OCI registries including push, pull, and version management.
- Authentication enhancements enable secure access to OCI registries with multiple authentication methods.
- Pulling improvements enable efficient chart pulling from OCI registries with caching and verification.
Integration Capabilities
- Kubernetes integration improvements provide seamless integration with Kubernetes APIs and custom resources.
- CI/CD integration enables integration with CI/CD pipelines for automated chart testing and deployment.
- GitOps integration enables integration with GitOps workflows for version-controlled chart management.
- Chart hooks enhancements provide better lifecycle management with pre-install, post-install, and other hooks.
Getting Started
# Install Helm
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/main/scripts/get-helm-3 | bash
# Add chart repository
helm repo add stable https://charts.helm.sh/stable
helm repo update
# Install chart
helm install my-release stable/nginx
Summary
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Release Date | December 10, 2025 |
| Headline Features | Chart management, security features, OCI support, integration capabilities |
| Why it Matters | Delivers comprehensive package management solution with improved security and OCI support for Kubernetes applications |
Helm 3.14 continues to be the standard package manager for Kubernetes, making it easier to deploy and manage complex applications with reusable charts and OCI artifacts.