> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.release.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.release.com/reference-documentation/helm/getting-started.md).

# Getting started

To get started using Helm with Release, you'll need to add a few files to your repository.

Create the following files:

```
.release.yaml
.release/application_template.yaml
.release/environment_variables.yaml
```

## The `.release.yaml` file

The `.release.yaml` file is loaded during application creation. It defines where Release will find the default Application Template and environment variables to use to create an application.

The `.release.yaml` file could look something like this:

```
application_template: .release/application_template.yaml
environment_variables: .release/environment_variables.yaml
```

## The Application Template file

The `application-template.yaml` file is the default Application Template generated when you create an application. The Application Template is also used for deployment in GitOps-enabled applications.

An Application Template that deploys Elasticsearch via Helm would look something like this:

```
---
app: elasticsearch-helm
auto_deploy: true
context: release-handsup-us-east-1
domain: elasticsearch-helm.rls.sh
mode: development
repo_name: awesome-release/elasticsearch-helm
environment_templates:
- name: ephemeral
- name: permanent
resources:
  cpu:
    limits: 1000m
    requests: 100m
  memory:
    limits: 1Gi
    requests: 100Mi
  replicas: 1
charts:
- name: elasticsearch
  add: elastic
  repo_url: https://helm.elastic.co
  directory: elasticsearch
  values: 
  - values.yaml
workflows:
- name: setup
  parallelize:
  - step: elasticsearch
    tasks:
    - charts.elasticsearch
- name: patch
  parallelize:
  - step: elasticsearch
    tasks:
    - charts.elasticsearch
```

## The Environment Variables file

The `environment-variables.yaml` file defines your application's default environment variables. These environment variables will be passed to your Helm charts and are used to populate your Helm `values.yaml` file.

Here is an example `environment-variables.yaml` file with a username and password that can be consumed by your Helm `values.yaml` file:

```
---
defaults:
- key: ELASTICSEARCH_USERNAME
  value: elastic
  secret: false
- key: ELASTICSEARCH_PASSWORD
  value: supersecret
  secret: true
services: {}
```

Once you have created these files and checked them in to your source control repository, you are ready to create an application. See [Create an application](https://github.com/releasehub-com/docs/blob/main/reference-guide/helm/broken-reference/README.md) to learn more about how to make an application in Release.


---

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