helm-tview

Helm plugin that renders helm template to a temporary directory and opens a split-view TUI so you can browse each generated manifest file with a live preview.

Features

• Bold filenames with dimmed directories and cyan Kubernetes kind (if present)
• Split-view with preview powered by bat; falls back to pager
• Fuzzy selector via fzf; falls back to a simple numbered menu
• Content filtering with -s/--search (highlights matches; uses ripgrep when available)

Requirements

• Helm 3+
• macOS/Linux with Bash
• Optional for best UX: fzf, bat and ripgrep

Install

Recommended (install a released version):

helm plugin install https://github.com/arjundandagi/helm-tview --version vX.Y.Z 
replace vX.Y.Z with a tag from the releases page

Upgrade:

helm plugin remove tview || true helm plugin install https://github.com/arjundandagi/helm-tview --version vX.Y.Z

Uninstall:

helm plugin remove tview

Local (from a cloned repo, for development only):

helm plugin remove tview || true helm plugin install .

Usage

Synopsis:

helm tview [RELEASE_NAME] [CHART] [template flags...] [-s|--search STRING]

Common flows:

# From inside a chart directory (must contain Chart.yaml) helm tview .

Specify release name and chart path with values
helm tview myrel ./path/to/chart -f values.yaml
Use a remote chart and set values inline
helm tview myrel bitnami/nginx --set image.tag=latest
Filter to files that contain a string and highlight matches
helm tview . --search ServiceAccount
helm tview . -s image:tag

Options

• -s, --search STRING: Only list files that contain STRING and highlight matches in preview
• -h, --help: Show help and exit

Environment variables

• HELM_BIN: Path to the Helm binary to invoke (default: helm)
• DEBUG=1: Keep the temporary output directory for inspection
• PAGER: Pager command when opening a file (default: less -R)
• FZFDEFAULTOPTS: Additional options passed to fzf when available

Notes

• The plugin writes manifests to a temporary directory and cleans it up on exit
• Any --output-dir flag you pass to helm template is ignored; the plugin manages its own temp dir

Troubleshooting

• "Not a Helm chart directory": run from a path that contains Chart.yaml, or pass an explicit chart path
• "No files were produced by helm template": ensure your chart and values render output for the selected namespace and conditions
• fzf/bat/rg not found: install them for a better experience, otherwise the plugin falls back gracefully
• Preview looks odd: try disabling color by setting your pager differently, e.g. PAGER=less or ensure a recent bat version

License

Contributing