When we execute the helm repo add command, where is the repository information (name, URL, index.yaml, etc.) stored locally? To find that out, hit the following command:

$ helm env
...
HELM_REPOSITORY_CACHE="/home/rick/.cache/helm/repository"
HELM_REPOSITORY_CONFIG="/home/rick/.config/helm/repositories.yaml"

The HELM_REPOSITORY_CONFIG path is where the repository information is stored when you helm repo add or helm repo update. This file includes the URL, authentication details, etc.

# $ cat /home/rick/.config/helm/repositories.yaml
apiVersion: ""
generated: "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z"
repositories:
- caFile: ""
  certFile: ""
  insecure_skip_tls_verify: false
  keyFile: ""
  name: bitnami
  pass_credentials_all: false
  password: ""
  url: https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
  username: ""

The HELM_REPOSITORY_CACHE directory on the other hand, stores/caches repository index files (index.yaml) and additional information to help you search for a particular chart across added repositories and perform operations (helm install, helm pull, etc.) on them.

$ ls /home/rick/.cache/helm/repository
bitnami-charts.txt  bitnami-index.yaml