# Your First Install — Helm

Source: https://www.skillbyai.com/en/helm/h-first

> Find a chart, install it, inspect it and remove it.

## Search, inspect, install, observe, uninstall

Charts for popular software are published by their projects and indexed on **Artifact Hub**, which you can search from the CLI with `helm search hub`. Add a repository with `helm repo add`, refresh its index with `helm repo update`, and search it with `helm search repo`. Before installing anything, **read its values**: `helm show values` prints every setting the chart supports with defaults, and `helm show readme` shows the docs. `helm install` creates the release; `helm status` shows its state and prints the chart's `NOTES.txt` (usually how to reach the app); `helm get manifest` shows the exact YAML that was applied. `helm uninstall` deletes the release's objects and its history, unless you pass `--keep-history`.

## A complete first session

Installs an NGINX ingress controller from its official repository into its own namespace.

```bash
helm repo add ingress-nginx https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx
helm repo update
helm search repo ingress-nginx --versions | head -5

helm show values ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx > default-values.yaml   # read before installing

helm install ingress ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx \
  --namespace ingress --create-namespace \
  --version 4.11.3 \
  --set controller.replicaCount=2

helm status ingress -n ingress
helm get manifest ingress -n ingress | less
helm uninstall ingress -n ingress
```

## Always pin the chart version

Without `--version`, Helm installs the latest chart, so the same command can install something different next month. Pin versions in scripts and pipelines, and upgrade deliberately.

**Quiz:** Which command shows the configurable settings of a chart before you install it?

- [ ] helm status
- [ ] helm history
- [x] helm show values
- [ ] helm get manifest

*Answer:* helm show values. helm show values prints the chart's default values.yaml, documenting what you can configure.