Deploying a REST API with Helm in Kubernetes

Deploying a REST API with a Helm chart is the fastest way to push a stable, repeatable configuration into Kubernetes. Helm wraps your manifests into versioned charts, making deployment, upgrades, and rollbacks precise. With the right values file, you define your service, ingress, resources, secrets, and environment variables in a single, portable package.

Start with a clean chart structure. Include Chart.yaml for metadata and a values.yaml that holds defaults. Your templates folder should contain manifests for Deployment, Service, and Ingress. For REST API deployment, set the container image in values.yaml to your latest build, and make sure readiness and liveness probes target the correct health endpoints.

Example values for a REST API Helm chart:

image:
 repository: my-api
 tag: latest
service:
 type: ClusterIP
 port: 80
ingress:
 enabled: true
 hosts:
 - host: api.example.com
 paths:
 - path: /
 pathType: ImplementationSpecific
resources:
 requests:
 cpu: 250m
 memory: 256Mi
 limits:
 cpu: 500m
 memory: 512Mi

Deploy with:

helm install rest-api ./rest-api-chart -f values.yaml

Helm will create or update your resources consistently across environments. Use helm upgrade to ship new versions without downtime, and helm rollback when needed. This workflow removes manual kubectl edits and keeps your REST API reproducible in seconds.

Integrating secrets is critical for REST API deployments. Store database credentials and API keys in Kubernetes Secrets, then reference them in deployment.yaml via envFrom or valueFrom. Combine with ConfigMaps for non-sensitive configuration. Version control your chart to lock in infrastructure state for every release.

When running multiple REST API instances, define horizontal pod autoscaling in a HorizontalPodAutoscaler manifest. Adjust thresholds for CPU or request latency so scaling responds to real traffic.

A solid REST API Helm chart deployment makes your application portable, predictable, and easy to maintain. Deploy it once, and repeat that deployment anywhere your cluster runs.

See it in action and launch your REST API in minutes with Helm-ready workflows at hoop.dev.