Helm 4 - The Definitive Guide to the Biggest Update in 6 Years

Helm 4.0 dropped at KubeCon Atlanta 2025, marking the biggest update in 6 years. Server-Side Apply finally ends the GitOps ownership wars. WASM plugins bring sandboxed security. But what breaks? This is the definitive guide covering SSA deep-dive, migration timeline, and the full breaking changes analysis.

In this episode:
- Server-Side Apply (SSA) replaces three-way merge - field ownership tracked at API server level via managedFields
- SSA delivers 40-60% faster deployments by reducing API calls (1 PATCH vs 2+ GET/PATCH per resource)
- WASM plugins via Extism runtime are optional but recommended - existing Go binaries and shell scripts still work

Perfect for senior platform engineers, sres, devops engineers with 5+ years experience looking to level up their platform engineering skills.

Episode URL: https://platformengineeringplaybook.com/podcasts/00042-helm-4-comprehensive-guide