Production-oriented Helm charts and Kubernetes packaging workflows built around official upstream images, explicit values contracts, and verifiable releases.
Website · Documentation · Helm Repository · Artifact Hub · Charts
HelmForge is an open-source Helm chart ecosystem for teams that want standard Kubernetes, standard Helm, official upstream images, and practical day-2 operations without a proprietary chart or image layer.
The project currently maintains 86 Helm charts across databases, messaging, identity, automation, CMS, analytics, AI tooling, networking, observability, and self-hosted applications. Charts are published through both a classic HTTPS Helm repository and OCI artifacts on GHCR.
Our design principle is simple:
Use what upstream ships, make the Kubernetes contract explicit, and keep releases verifiable.
- Official upstream images - charts prefer images published by the application maintainers, avoiding unnecessary rebuild layers and vendor-specific runtime wrappers.
- Pinned, inspectable defaults - image tags are explicit, values are schema-backed, and runtime assumptions are documented.
- Release CI validation - charts are linted, rendered, unit-tested, schema-validated, and checked with Artifact Hub tooling before release.
- Signed releases - packaged charts include GPG provenance and OCI artifacts are signed with Sigstore Cosign through GitHub Actions OIDC.
- Day-2 patterns included - 39 charts include optional S3-compatible backup workflows, and charts document operational boundaries clearly.
- CNCF-aligned licensing - the charts, documentation, examples, and core project materials use Apache-2.0; supporting image repositories may carry their own licenses.
- No open-core split - charts, tests, docs, release automation, examples, and governance are public.
Use the HTTPS Helm repository:
helm repo add helmforge https://repo.helmforge.dev
helm repo update
helm search repo helmforge/
helm install my-release helmforge/<chart-name> --version <version> -f values.yamlOr pull directly from OCI:
helm install my-release oci://ghcr.io/helmforgedev/helm/<chart-name> --version <version> -f values.yamlBrowse the full catalog at helmforge.dev/charts or Artifact Hub.
| Repository | Purpose |
|---|---|
| charts | Primary product repository: Helm charts, chart tests, values schemas, release automation, provenance, and package metadata |
| site | Documentation website at helmforge.dev, chart catalog, roadmap, playground, and stack builder |
| .github | Organization profile and shared community health files |
| fastmcp-server | Production-ready FastMCP server image with dynamic tool, resource, and prompt loading |
| kubectl | Minimal multi-architecture kubectl image for Kubernetes operations |
| helmforge-ops | Private operations hub for invited contributors: agent skills, guardrails, knowledge, and cross-repo automation |
| Area | Current state |
|---|---|
| Charts | 86 chart packages |
| Stable charts | 83 stable charts |
| Backups | 39 charts with optional S3-compatible backup support |
| Distribution | HTTPS Helm repository and GHCR OCI registry |
| Release integrity | GPG provenance plus Sigstore Cosign signatures |
| Validation | Helm lint, strict lint, template rendering, helm-unittest, kubeconform, and Artifact Hub lint |
| Configuration | JSON Schema for every chart |
| License | Apache-2.0 for charts, docs, examples, and core project materials; supporting image repositories may vary |
| CNCF | Sandbox application preparation in progress |
HelmForge is preparing for CNCF Sandbox submission and is strengthening governance, maintainership, adoption tracking, and community health files as part of that process.
Public adopters currently include organizations using HelmForge charts in production for databases, application workloads, backups, identity, and platform services.
- Documentation: https://helmforge.dev/docs
- Chart catalog: https://helmforge.dev/charts
- Comparison with Bitnami and community charts: https://helmforge.dev/docs/comparison
- Roadmap: https://helmforge.dev/roadmap
- Artifact Hub: https://artifacthub.io/packages/search?repo=helmforge
- Public Helm repository: https://repo.helmforge.dev