Flux HelmRelease not detecting values changes in OCI Helm chart without version bump

[keduCtl]

Hi Flux team,

I am using Helm charts stored in an OCI repository and deploying them via Flux HelmRelease.

In my setup, I configure valuesFrom to reference values from the Helm chart stored in the OCI repo. The issue I’m facing is that when I update the values (for example updating container image tags inside values.yaml), Flux does not detect these changes automatically.

Currently, every time values change, I must:

Bump the Helm chart version

Push the new version to OCI

Update the chart version in the Flux repo

Only then Flux reconciles and applies the change.

Is there any way to trigger a Helm upgrade automatically when only the values change in the OCI artifact, without changing the chart version?

My main use case is frequent image updates via values.yaml.
Using an image updater is not feasible because we have hundreds of images in the cluster, which makes that approach complex to manage.

Similarly, bumping the chart version for every image update is operationally heavy and not scalable.

Is there a recommended pattern or Flux-supported approach for this scenario?

Thanks!

[stefanprodan]

In my setup, I configure valuesFrom to reference values from the Helm chart stored in the OCI repo. The issue I’m facing is that when I update the values (for example updating container image tags inside values.yaml), Flux does not detect these changes automatically.

Make sure you are on Flux 2.7 and add this label to the ConfigMap/Secret used in valuesFrom: reconcile.fluxcd.io/watch: Enabled

Docs here: https://fluxcd.io/flux/components/helm/helmreleases/#reacting-immediately-to-configuration-dependencies

[stefanprodan]

Use source-watcher to merge/override the values files inside the chart, helm-controller will detect changes every time the file changes. Docs here: https://github.com/fluxcd/source-watcher?tab=readme-ov-file#example-helm-chart-composition

[keduCtl]

Yes it's required architecture changes in the environment which is bit complex for now

[matheuscscp]

Relevant: #5696

[keduCtl]

I’m wondering if there are any future plans for Flux to automatically detect or read values from a Helm chart stored in an OCI registry, especially when CI updates the chart’s values and pushing it to OCI with same helmrelease version.

[matheuscscp]

I’m wondering if there are any future plans for Flux to automatically detect or read values from a Helm chart stored in an OCI registry, especially when CI updates the chart’s values and pushing it to OCI with same helmrelease version.

Support for this already exists, you just need to follow this example, as Stefan mentioned:

https://github.com/fluxcd/source-watcher?tab=readme-ov-file#example-helm-chart-composition