Helm Values Explorer

A Visual Studio Code extension that enhances your Helm chart development workflow by providing instant value previews and navigation across multiple environment-specific values files.

Features

• Smart value preview: Hover any {{ .Values.* }} reference to see its value from every values file in the chart.
• Subtree hover: Hovering on an intermediate key like {{ .Values.image }} renders the full subtree as YAML — no more "Value Not Found".
• Full Go-template coverage: Detects .Values references inside if, with, range, function calls (printf ... .Values.x), parenthesized expressions ((eq .Values.env "prod")), multi-pipe (.Values.x | default "y" | quote), and root-context references ($.Values.x inside range/with).
• Accurate Go-to-Definition: Uses the YAML AST (via the yaml package) to jump to the exact key position in every values file that defines the path.
• Intelligent autocomplete: Suggests both leaf keys and parent objects when typing .Values paths.
• Chart-aware discovery: Locates the chart root via Chart.yaml and searches the chart root plus every subchart under charts/. Falls back to walking ancestor directories when no Chart.yaml is present.
• Multi-language activation: Activates on yaml, helm, helm-template, gotmpl, and tpl documents — works even when your template files are registered to a Helm language extension.
• Performance: AST-cached per file, keyed by absolute path, with RelativePattern-based file watching to invalidate on change.
• Diagnostic output channel: Logging is routed to a dedicated "Helm Values Explorer" output channel with a configurable verbosity (helmValuesExplorer.logLevel).

Installation

1. Open Visual Studio Code
2. Press Ctrl+P / Cmd+P to open the Quick Open dialog
3. Type ext install rossp.helm-values-explorer and press Enter

Usage

1. Open a Helm chart directory in VS Code
2. Navigate to any template file (e.g., templates/deployment.yaml)
3. Hover over any {{ .Values.* }} expression to see values from all matching files
4. Ctrl+Click on any {{ .Values.* }} expression to navigate to its definition in the values file(s)
5. Type {{ .Values. to get autocomplete suggestions for available value paths

Example

Given these files:

mychart/
├── values.yaml         # Default values
├── dev-values.yaml     # Development overrides
├── prod-values.yaml    # Production overrides
└── templates/
    └── deployment.yaml

Hover Preview: When hovering over {{ .Values.image.repository }}, you'll see values from all matching files with clear source labeling.

Go to Definition: Ctrl+Click on {{ .Values.image.repository }} will jump to the definition of image.repository in the values file(s), allowing you to quickly navigate and edit the values.

Autocomplete: Type {{ .Values.image. and press Ctrl+Space to see available properties like repository, tag, and pullPolicy.

Configuration

This extension contributes the following settings:

• helmValuesExplorer.valueFiles: Glob patterns for values files (default: ["values.yaml", "*values.yaml", "values.*.yaml"]). Patterns are evaluated against the chart root and every subchart directory under charts/.
• helmValuesExplorer.showFileNames: Show the source file name above each value in hover output (default: true).
• helmValuesExplorer.logLevel: Verbosity for the "Helm Values Explorer" output channel. One of off, error, warn, info, debug (default: info).

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Here's how you can help:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Release Notes

0.1.0 (2026-05-03)

• Reliable hover detection: Rewrote the template parser as a tokenizer that respects strings and comments. Hover, Go-to-Definition, and completion now work inside if, with, range, function arguments, parenthesized expressions, multi-pipe chains, whitespace-trim markers ({{- ... -}}), and $.Values.* root-context references.
• Subtree hover: Hovering on a parent path (e.g. .Values.image) now renders the full YAML subtree instead of "Value Not Found".
• Cleaner hover UI: Removed emoji clutter. Hover now shows the resolved path in bold, the original expression, and one fenced code block per matching values file.
• AST-backed Go-to-Definition: Uses the yaml package AST to find the exact line and column of each key in each values file, replacing the previous indentation-based heuristic.
• Chart-aware discovery: Finds the chart root via Chart.yaml and indexes the chart root plus every subchart under charts/. Falls back to ancestor walking when no chart manifest is present.
• Broader activation: Now activates on helm, helm-template, gotmpl, and tpl documents (in addition to yaml), plus workspaces that contain a Chart.yaml.
• Dedicated output channel: All logging is routed through a "Helm Values Explorer" output channel with a configurable helmValuesExplorer.logLevel setting. No more noise in the developer console.
• Cache correctness: Cache is now keyed by absolute file path (previously basename), eliminating collisions between identically named values files in different chart directories.
• Tests: Added 50 unit and integration tests covering the parser, values index, chart model, and all three providers.

0.0.7 (2025-01-XX)

• Enhanced Pattern Matching: Support for complex Helm expressions with pipes, functions, and filters (e.g., {{ .Values.port | default 8080 }})
• Improved Hover Detection: Hover works anywhere within {{ }} expressions, not just on specific words
• Intelligent Autocomplete: Context-aware suggestions when typing .Values paths
• Performance Improvements: Smart caching with file watching for faster response times
• Better User Experience: Cleaner hover popup formatting with organized multi-file value display
• Go to Definition: Navigate directly to value definitions across multiple files

0.0.6 (2025-04-28)

• Lowered minimum VSCode version requirement to 1.74.0 for better compatibility

0.0.5 (2025-04-24)

• Synchronized README and CHANGELOG release notes for better documentation consistency

0.0.4 (2025-04-24)

• Updated CHANGELOG format and documentation
• Improved README badge clarity using badgen.net

0.0.3 (2025-04-24)

• Updated extension icon
• Improved package size by excluding development assets
• Fixed README badges for better visibility on GitHub

0.0.2 (2025-04-24)

• Updated extension icon
• Fixed README formatting and badge display

0.0.1 (2025-04-24)

• Initial release
• Hover preview for Helm values
• Support for multiple value files (values.yaml, dev-values.yaml, prod-values.yaml)
• Automatic value file detection in current and parent directories
• YAML formatting with source file labels
• Configurable value file patterns
• Toggle for showing/hiding source file names in hover

Made for the Helm community

Got feedback? Open an issue or star the repo if you find it useful!