Chart Repositories

A chart repository is an HTTP server that houses one or more packagedcharts. While helm can be used to manage local chart directories, whenit comes to sharing charts, the preferred mechanism is a chartrepository.

Any HTTP server that can serve YAML files and tar files and can answerGET requests can be used as a repository server.

Helm comes with built-in package server for developer testing (helmserve). The Helm team has tested other servers, including Google CloudStorage with website mode enabled, and S3 with website mode enabled.

A repository is characterized primarily by the presence of a specialfile called index.yaml that has a list of all of the packages suppliedby the repository, together with metadata that allows retrieving andverifying those packages.

On the client side, repositories are managed with the helm repocommands. However, Helm does not provide tools for uploading charts toremote repository servers. This is because doing so would addsubstantial requirements to an implementing server, and thus raise thebarrier for setting up a repository.