helm repo update: Usage, Options & Common CI Errors

Refresh the local index so new chart versions appear.

helm repo update re-downloads the index.yaml of your registered repositories so Helm knows about newly published chart versions. Skipping it is a classic reason a just-published chart "cannot be found" in CI.

What it does

helm repo update refreshes the cached index for all added repos (or just the ones you name). Helm resolves chart versions from these cached indexes, so a chart published after your last update is invisible until you run it. It is a read-only metadata refresh - fast, and safe to run on every CI build.

Common usage

Terminal

helm repo update
helm repo update bitnami            # just one repo
helm repo add internal https://charts.example.com && helm repo update internal
helm repo update && helm install web internal/web

Common errors in CI

The symptom of skipping update is "Error: ... chart \"web\" matching <version> not found in <repo> index" - the index is stale, so a freshly published version is missing; always helm repo update after add and before install in CI. "Unable to get an update from the \"X\" chart repository" with a network error means a repo URL is unreachable (DNS, proxy, an outage); update fails the whole refresh if any repo errors unless you scope to the reachable one. Since CI runners start with no cached indexes, add then update every run.

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