Nelm is meant to be a Helm 3 replacement, providing first-class Helm-chart support, yet improving on what Helm 3 offers.

Nelm is a standalone tool, but is also used as the deployment engine in werf.

Nelm is based on Helm 3 — some parts of it improved, but some are rewritten from scratch (like the deployment subsystem) to introduce:

• terraform plan-like capabilities
• Replacement of 3-Way Merge with Server-Side Apply
• Improved resource tracking built from the ground up
• Advanced resource ordering capabilities
• Flexible resource lifecycle management
• Fixes for numerous Helm 3 issues like this one and other improvements

Getting started with Nelm

1. Build and install Nelm:

git clone https://github.com/werf/nelm
cd nelm
go build ./cmd/nelm/
sudo install -t /usr/local/bin nelm

2. Create new chart:

mkdir ../mychart
cd ../mychart

cat > Chart.yaml <<EOF
apiVersion: v2
name: mychart
version: 1.0.0
dependencies:
- name: cert-manager
  version: 1.13.3
  repository: https://charts.jetstack.io
EOF

cat > values.yaml <<EOF
cert-manager:
  installCRDs: true
  startupapicheck:
    enabled: false
EOF

nelm chart dependency download

3. Check what's going to happen on next release:

nelm release plan install -n myproject -r myproject

4. Deploy new release:

nelm release install -n myproject -r myproject

Getting started with Nelm via werf

1. Download werf v2
2. Create new project:

git init myproject
cd myproject
mkdir .helm

cat > .helm/Chart.yaml <<EOF
dependencies:
- name: cert-manager
  version: 1.13.3
  repository: https://charts.jetstack.io
EOF

cat > .helm/values.yaml <<EOF
cert-manager:
  installCRDs: true
  startupapicheck:
    enabled: false
EOF

cat > werf.yaml <<EOF
configVersion: 1
project: myproject
EOF

cat > .gitignore <<EOF
/.helm/charts/*.tgz
EOF

werf helm dependency update .helm
git add .
git commit -m init

3. Check what's going to happen on next release:

werf plan --env dev

4. Deploy new release:

werf converge --env dev

5. Proceed to werf documentation to learn more.