Thanks a lot for the details, Alex! I agree that the impact may be limited
in practice. That said, if the consensus is that the impact is minor and
well covered by the upgrade notes, I am fine with keeping it as an upgrade
note rather than explicitly labeling it as breaking.

Yufei


On Wed, Feb 18, 2026 at 11:42 AM Jean-Baptiste Onofré <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Hi
>
> I don't think we should flag this as a breaking change. Just to note
> to the users is enough imho.
>
> Regards
> JB
>
> On Wed, Feb 18, 2026 at 7:33 PM Alexandre Dutra <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > The only case where an old config could be rejected is if it is using
> > a "relaxed" syntax, e.g. if someone was **explicitly** overriding
> > revisionHistoryLimit to "" instead of 0, then this would fail with the
> > new chart, because revisionHistoryLimit is now of type [integer, null]
> > and not string:
> >
> > helm template polaris helm/polaris --set revisionHistoryLimit=""
> > Error: values don't meet the specifications of the schema(s) in the
> > following chart(s):
> > polaris:
> > - at '/revisionHistoryLimit': got string, want null or integer
> >
> > I don't expect this to happen a lot to be honest.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Alex
> >
> > On Wed, Feb 18, 2026 at 6:38 PM Yufei Gu <[email protected]> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Re: "breaking change" - we do not have a formal statement about helm
> > > evolution in [1], so I'm fine with treating it in a lenient manner for
> > > 1.4.0.
> > >
> > > Whether or not we have a formal evolution statement, I believe this
> should
> > > be considered a breaking change if users will experience failures when
> > > upgrading.
> > >
> > > > I assume values that match the new schema will also be acceptable in
> the
> > > old helm version.
> > >
> > > Is that actually the case? If not, then the upgrade impact seems
> clearer.
> > > Maybe Alex and Yong can confirm.
> > >
> > > Yufei
> > >
> > >
> > > On Wed, Feb 18, 2026 at 8:37 AM Dmitri Bourlatchkov <[email protected]>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Hi All,
> > > >
> > > > Re: "breaking change" - we do not have a formal statement about helm
> > > > evolution in [1], so I'm fine with treating it in a lenient manner
> for
> > > > 1.4.0.
> > > >
> > > > I assume values that match the new schema will also be acceptable in
> the
> > > > old helm version.
> > > >
> > > > In general, I tend to think that helm value refactoring are on the
> same
> > > > "page" as SPI changes - before they hit production, users will use
> them
> > > > locally or in CI (assuming normal software development practices),
> and they
> > > > will discover the need for adjustments before anything "breaks".
> > > >
> > > > Helm values is a tool for Polaris to request input from the users.
> It is
> > > > not a tool for users to make Polaris do something other than what
> the helm
> > > > charts intend. Therefore, I believe users ought to expect changes in
> helm
> > > > values validation in every release.
> > > >
> > > > That said, I'm also open to flagging this as a "breaking change" in
> > > > CHANGELOG, if that's what the consensus might be.
> > > >
> > > > I still believe it is not worth bumping the major version number, if
> we
> > > > were to treat it as a breaking change from the SemVer [2]
> perspective.
> > > >
> > > > [1] https://polaris.apache.org/in-dev/unreleased/evolution/
> > > >
> > > > [2] https://semver.org/
> > > >
> > > > Cheers,
> > > > Dmitri.
> > > >
> > > > On Wed, Feb 18, 2026 at 5:43 AM Alexandre Dutra <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Hi all,
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks to everyone for the feedback.
> > > > >
> > > > > Regarding user awareness: we've added a note to the changelog under
> > > > > "Upgrade Notes":
> > > > >
> > > > > > The Helm chart now includes a JSON schema file for easy
> validation of
> > > > > values files. Because types are now validated, existing values
> files may
> > > > > need to be updated to match the new schema.
> > > > >
> > > > > I'm open to reclassifying this as a "breaking change" if people
> think
> > > > > it's necessary. I think the "breaking" nature is debatable, but I'm
> > > > > fine with making the change.
> > > > >
> > > > > FYI I may merge the PR in the interim though because I have more
> PRs
> > > > > waiting on that one, but I can change the wording in the changelog
> in
> > > > > a follow-up PR to reflect the community's opinion.
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks,
> > > > > Alex
> > > > >
> > > > > On Wed, Feb 18, 2026 at 10:23 AM Nándor Kollár <[email protected]
> >
> > > > wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > +1 for JSON schema, I think it is a good idea to add validation
> on Helm
> > > > > > values.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Nandor
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Jean-Baptiste Onofré <[email protected]> ezt írta (időpont: 2026.
> febr.
> > > > > 18.,
> > > > > > Sze, 9:48):
> > > > > >
> > > > > > > Hi,
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > +1 for the PR and including it in the 1.4.0-incubating release.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Since this is a significant change, should we add a specific
> note for
> > > > > Helm
> > > > > > > users in the release notes?
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Regards,
> > > > > > > JB
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > On Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 2:47 PM Alexandre Dutra <
> [email protected]>
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > Hi all,
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > I recently opened a PR that introduces support for JSON
> schema in
> > > > the
> > > > > > > > Polaris Helm chart:
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > https://github.com/apache/polaris/pull/3759
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > While the feature per se is, I believe, quite consensual,
> it's
> > > > also a
> > > > > > > > significant change. Besides, it would be released with the
> upcoming
> > > > > > > > 1.4.0 release, so I wanted to draw the community's attention
> to it
> > > > > > > > before merging the PR.
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > If you have any comments or remarks please leave them
> directly in
> > > > > the PR.
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > Thanks,
> > > > > > > > Alex
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
>

Reply via email to