Helmsman v4.0.1 fails with Helm v4.0.0: "unknown flag: --client" error (Support for Helm v4.x.x)

[DavidLeonardoGutierrez]

On November 12, 2025, Helm v4.0.0 was released. We are using Helmsman v4.0.1, and when running it with Helm v4.0.0, we encounter the following error:

| |        | | 
| |__   ___| |_ __ ___  ___ _ __ ___   __ _ _ __
| '_ \ / _ \ | '_ ` _ \/ __| '_ ` _ \ / _` | '_ \ 
| | | |  __/ | | | | | \__ \ | | | | | (_| | | | | 
|_| |_|\___|_|_| |_| |_|___/_| |_| |_|\__,_|_| |_| version: v4.0.1
A Helm-Charts-as-Code tool.

2025-11-13 15:25:01 CRITICAL: While checking helm version: Checking Helm version failed with non-zero exit code 1: exit status 1
output: 
--- stdout ---

--- stderr ---
Error: unknown flag: --client

It appears Helmsman is passing the --client flag to Helm, which is no longer supported in Helm v4.0.0. Please advise on compatibility and include in the backlog a fix 🙏.

Steps to reproduce:

Install Helm v4.0.0.
Run Helmsman v4.0.1.
Expected behavior:
Helmsman should work with Helm v4.0.0 without errors.

Actual behavior:
Fails with "unknown flag: --client".

Environment:

Helmsman version: v4.0.1
Helm version: v4.0.0
Date observed: November 13, 2025

[gclawes]

--client option was removed: helm/helm@469f4b4

[gclawes]

This also appears to be an issue: helm/helm#31500

Specifically with the handling of the helm secrets command as part of the helm-secrets plugin:

helmsman/internal/app/utils.go

Line 481 in e6c1307

args := []string{"secrets", "dec", name}

Because helm-secrets is installed as a getter/v1 type plugin under the new helm v4 plugin system, it cannot be accessed as a command via helm secrets:

$ helm plugin list
NAME    VERSION TYPE            APIVERSION      PROVENANCE      SOURCE
secrets 4.6.5   getter/v1       legacy          unknown         unknown

[gjenkins8]

see kubernetes-sigs/kustomize#6013 for a similar issue with kustomize (solution is to simply remove this -c/--client flag. It has done nothing since Helm v3 was released several years ago.

[jkroepke]

Specifically with the handling of the helm secrets command as part of the helm-secrets plugin:

helm secrets needs to be installed differently. See https://github.com/jkroepke/helm-secrets/wiki/Installation for Installation under Helm 4

[gclawes]

It looks like --all needs to be removed from helm list here (helm/helm#31295):

helmsman/internal/app/helm_release.go

Line 52 in a1b7721

cmd := helmCmd([]string{"list", "--all", "--max", "0", "--output", "json", "-n", ns}, "Listing all existing releases in [ "+ns+" ] namespace")

and --force replaced with --force-replace in helm install/helm upgrade here (helm/helm#30982):

helmsman/internal/app/release.go

Line 412 in a1b7721

flgs = append(flgs, "--force")

[igalarzab]

hey @luisdavim, thanks for merging the fix! do you have an estimate date of when are you planning to make the next release?

[luisdavim]

Hi, I've just cut a new release, please let me know if everything is working as expected @igalarzab

[igalarzab]

thanks a lot for the release @luisdavim !

I just tested it but it seems there are more backward incompatible changes in the last helm release :(

I'm receiving the following error:

--- stderr ---
Error: unknown flag: --all

Which seems to be caused by this line:

helmsman/internal/app/helm_release.go

Line 52 in 04dcb54

cmd := helmCmd([]string{"list", "--all", "--max", "0", "--output", "json", "-n", ns}, "Listing all existing releases in [ "+ns+" ] namespace")

It seems list shows all by default now (and the flag was removed):
helm/helm#31295

[gclawes]

Yep, as I said above here #977 (comment), 2 more changes needed

[luisdavim]

Ok, I'll have a look by the end of the day.