helmfile "chart ... not found" (needs helm repo add) in CI

A release points at a chart like bitnami/nginx, but the bitnami repository is not registered or its index is stale in CI, so helm reports the chart cannot be found. helmfile normally runs the repo add for you if repositories: is declared.

What this error means

helmfile sync or apply fails with "Error: chart \"bitnami/nginx\" not found" or "no chart name found", usually on the first CI run before repos are cached.

Error: chart "bitnami/nginx" version "" not found in repository cache
in ./helmfile.yaml: command "helm" exited with non-zero status

Common causes

The repository is not declared or not added

The repositories: block is missing the repo, so helm has no index entry mapping the alias to a URL.

The repo cache is empty on a fresh runner

A clean CI runner has no ~/.cache/helm/repository entries, so the chart index must be fetched before the chart resolves.

How to fix it

Declare repositories and let helmfile sync them

1. Add the chart repo under repositories: in helmfile.yaml.
2. Run helmfile repos (or deps) so helmfile adds and updates the repo before apply.
3. Reference the chart as alias/chart matching the declared name.

repositories:
  - name: bitnami
    url: https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
releases:
  - name: web
    chart: bitnami/nginx

Add and update the repo manually before helmfile

If you drive helm directly, add the repo and refresh its index in a setup step.

helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
helm repo update
helmfile apply

How to prevent it

• Declare every chart repo in repositories: so helmfile can add them.
• Run helmfile repos early in CI to populate the cache.
• Cache ~/.cache/helm between runs to avoid re-fetching indexes.

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