#32225·Helm

[Feature] Allow users to disable ServerSideApply for pre-delete hooks during helm uninstall

Author: chendahao1991Created Jun 16, 2026Updated Sep 17, 2026
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What would you like to be added?

In Helm v4, all pre-delete hooks hardcode serverSideApply = true with no configurable switch. We request adding CLI flag / API option to let users disable server-side apply and fall back to client-side apply for uninstall hooks.

Why is this needed?

Cross-tool managedFields ownership conflict Many clusters use multi-tool management stacks (Flux, ArgoCD, custom operators) that write separate managedFields owners. SSA triggers persistent field ownership conflicts on pre-delete hook resources, causing uninstall failures even with --force-conflicts. Client-side apply avoids this managedFields lock conflict entirely. Compatibility with legacy Kubernetes clusters & custom webhooks Some on-prem / restricted clusters have custom admission webhooks that block ServerSideApply requests; pre-delete hooks cannot run without client-side apply fallback. Breaking change from Helm v3 behavior Helm v3 executed all hooks with client-side apply. After upgrading to v4, existing charts relying on pre-delete hooks started failing unexpectedly, with no official toggle to revert to old behavior. Users are forced to either: Use --no-hooks (lose pre-delete logic entirely) Maintain custom patched Helm binaries (high maintenance cost) Extract hook logic into external scripts (extra pipeline complexity) No alignment with existing --server-side flag design The global --server-side flag controls install/upgrade hook apply mode, but it is ignored for pre-delete hooks. This inconsistent behavior confuses users and breaks expected configuration parity.