How to share helm charts?

There are mainly two methods to share your helm chart:

1. helm chart repository
2. OCI registry

The first approach is pretty straightforward, just use any HTTP endpoint with uploaded helm packages optionally including provenance file and index file. More detailed info is here. Index should be available under /index.yaml, format should be conformed with this. Each time you pass helm repo add index.yaml is being downloaded into local cache and used when e.g. helm search repo <keyword>. So adding a new package require regenerating an index file, this downside can be avoided when you choose a dedicated helm repository e.g. chartmuseum. Chartmuseum can be backed up by different storage providers including the local filesystem it also provides basic authentication and overview metrics. To upload new package use cm-push plugin.

The second approach is being GA in helm 3.8, it doesn’t provide you the functionality of helm registry like searching (no index.yaml). Interaction with remote helm package requires passing prefix oci://. It also includes support for the provenance file. It simplifies a couple of things: you deal with one less repository type, auth capabilities (e.g. cloud-based image registries), no dealing with extra plugins or regenerating index just pass helm push. More detailed info is here.