helm-release-recovery

# Helm Release Recovery

Comprehensive guidance for recovering from failed Helm deployments, rolling back releases, and managing stuck or corrupted release states.

## When to Use

Use this skill automatically when:
- User needs to rollback a failed or problematic deployment
- User reports stuck releases (pending-install, pending-upgrade)
- User mentions failed upgrades or partial deployments
- User needs to recover from corrupted release state
- User wants to view release history
- User needs to clean up failed releases

## Core Recovery Operations

### Rollback to Previous Revision

```bash
# Rollback to previous revision (most recent successful)
helm rollback <release> --namespace <namespace>

# Rollback to specific revision number
helm rollback <release> 3 --namespace <namespace>

# Rollback with wait and atomic behavior
helm rollback <release> \
  --namespace <namespace> \
  --wait \
  --timeout 5m \
  --cleanup-on-fail

# Rollback without waiting (faster but less safe)
helm rollback <release> \
  --namespace <namespace> \
  --no-hooks
```

**Key Flags:**
- `--wait` - Wait for resources to be ready
- `--timeout` - Maximum time to wait (default 5m)
- `--cleanup-on-fail` - Delete new resources on failed rollback
- `--no-hooks` - Skip running rollback hooks
- `--force` - Force resource updates through deletion/recreation
- `--recreate-pods` - Perform pods restart for the resource if applicable

### View Release History

```bash
# View all revisions
helm history <release> --namespace <namespace>

# View detailed history (YAML format)
helm history <release> \
  --namespace <namespace> \
  --output yaml

# Limit number of revisions shown
helm history <release> \
  --namespace <namespace> \
  --max 10
```

**History Output Fields:**
- REVISION: Sequential version number
- UPDATED: Timestamp of deployment
- STATUS: deployed, superseded, failed, pending-install, pending-upgrade
- CHART: Chart name and version
- APP VERSION: Application version
- DESCRIPTION: What happen