Docs

Helm Review

What this screen is for

Helm Review shows what a Helm chart pull request will actually change in your environments — before it is merged. Rather than reading a chart diff and imagining the consequences, you see the resources that will change and the blast radius of the change.

It sits under Deploy rather than Tools deliberately: its subject is what a merge will do to these environments.

Before you start

To do this You need
Open the page the Helm Review read permission (helmReviewReadPermission)

Your Helm chart repository must be connected — see Settings › Development › Repositories.

Opening it

  1. Deploy › Helm Review in the sidebar.

Direct URL: /helm-review

There is also a Helm Review tab on catalog entities, showing the same analysis scoped to that component.

The interface

📸 Screenshot Placeholder: Helm Review with a pull request selected. Mark: (1) the pull request list, (2) the detail panel, (3) the resource plan, (4) the blast radius.

# Control What it does When you’d use it
1 Pull request list The chart PRs awaiting review Choosing what to look at
2 Detail panel The analysis for the selected PR Every review
3 Resource plan Which Kubernetes resources the merge creates, changes or removes Understanding the change concretely
4 Blast radius What else is affected Deciding how carefully to proceed

The distinction is worth holding onto. The resource plan is what changes. The blast radius is who else feels it. A one-line chart edit can have a small plan and a large blast radius, and that combination is exactly what this screen exists to surface.

Walkthroughs

Review a chart pull request

  1. Deploy › Helm Review.
  2. Select the pull request.
  3. Read the resource plan first — what is being created, changed, removed. Removals deserve more attention than additions.
  4. Read the blast radius. If it reaches beyond the component you expected, that is the finding.
  5. Approve or request changes on the pull request itself, in your Git provider. Helm Review analyses; it does not merge.

Review from a component

Open the component in the Catalog and use its Helm Review tab, when you care about one component rather than everything in flight.

Scenario

A “small config change” to a shared chart.

The PR is three lines and the author says it is trivial. Trivial is a claim about the diff, not about the consequences.

  1. Deploy › Helm Review, select the pull request.
  2. Resource plan — read what actually changes. Three lines in a shared values file can re-render many resources.
  3. Look specifically for removals and replacements. A changed immutable field means a resource is replaced rather than updated, which is a restart the author probably did not intend to schedule.
  4. Blast radius — check which environments and components are affected. A shared chart is shared; that is the point and the risk.
  5. If the radius covers production, coordinate through Deployments rather than merging on a Friday.
  6. Comment on the PR with what you found. The analysis is only useful if it reaches the person who can act on it.

Step 3 is the one that repays learning. “Small diff, large effect” is the normal shape of a Helm incident, and it is invisible in a plain chart diff.

When it doesn’t work

Symptom Cause How to check Fix
Helm Review is not in the submenu Missing the Helm Review read permission Access Explorer Ask for a role granting it
No pull requests listed The chart repository is not connected, or there are none open Repositories Connect and validate the repository
Analysis is empty for a PR The PR does not touch charts, or the base could not be resolved The PR contents Expected for non-chart changes
Blast radius looks smaller than you expect It reflects what Fenwave knows about — unregistered environments are invisible Environments Register everything the chart reaches
Approving here did not merge anything Helm Review analyses; it does not merge — Approve on the Git provider

Next