Adding & Updating Repositories
Register a chart repository with helm repo add, then pull the latest index with helm repo update.
helm repo add <name> <url>Before you can install a public chart you must tell Helm where to find it. A repository is given a short name (your local alias) and a URL.
Add a repo
Use helm repo add <name> <url>. After that, you refer to charts as <name>/<chart>.
Keep it fresh
Helm caches each repo's index locally. Run helm repo update to fetch the newest chart versions before installing or upgrading.
Inspecting repos
helm repo list— show configured repositories.helm repo remove <name>— delete one.
Example
# Add the Bitnami repository
helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
# Refresh the local cache of all repos
helm repo update
# See what is configured
helm repo listWhen to use it
- A developer registers the Bitnami repository once so the whole team can install community charts like Redis or MySQL without tracking down raw YAML.
- A platform team adds an internal Artifactory chart repository so developers can consume approved, pre-hardened charts that meet company security standards.
- A CI job runs helm repo update before every deployment to ensure it installs the latest chart version rather than a stale cached index.
More examples
Add and update a repo
Registers the Bitnami repository, pulls the latest chart index, and confirms the repo appears in the local list.
helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
helm repo update
helm repo listAdd a private repo with auth
Registers a password-protected chart repository using credentials from an environment variable, suitable for CI pipelines.
helm repo add my-private https://charts.example.com \
--username ci-bot \
--password "${CHART_REPO_TOKEN}"
helm repo updateRemove a stale repository
Deregisters a repository that is no longer needed, keeping the local repo list clean.
helm repo remove stable
helm repo list
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