Add HelmForge as a suggested Helm chart repository — open-source alternative to Bitnami

[mberlofa]

What would you like to be added:

Add HelmForge (https://repo.helmforge.dev) as a suggested or pre-configured Helm chart repository in Lens, alongside the existing default repositories.

HelmForge is an MIT-licensed Helm chart repository with 33 production-ready charts covering databases, self-hosted applications, and infrastructure workloads. All charts are published as OCI artifacts to ghcr.io/helmforgedev/helm and as a traditional Helm repository.

Why is this needed:

Lens users who browse Helm charts today are largely directed toward Bitnami as the default chart ecosystem. However, the Bitnami model has changed significantly after the Broadcom acquisition:

• Bitnami charts are tightly coupled to custom Bitnami-built images — not the official upstream images published by application maintainers
• The previously free open-source Bitnami images were moved to bitnamilegacy/* on Docker Hub, which are no longer updated, receive no security patches, and may be removed
• Production use of current Bitnami images now requires adopting Bitnami Secure Images (commercial tier)
• Bitnami image tags use proprietary versioning (e.g., 17.4.0-debian-12-r18) rather than upstream release tags

HelmForge takes a different approach:

• Official upstream images — every chart uses the exact image published by the application maintainer (e.g., postgres:17.4, not bitnami/postgresql:17.4.0-debian-12-r18)
• MIT licensed, forever — charts, CI, documentation. No open-core, no EULA, no usage limits
• Pinned, immutable version tags — no :latest, no floating tags
• Sigstore Cosign signed — every OCI artifact is signed with keyless signing via GitHub Actions OIDC
• Built-in S3 backup — 17+ charts include automated backup CronJobs to any S3-compatible endpoint
• JSON Schema validation — every chart ships with values.schema.json for install-time validation

Having HelmForge available in Lens would give users a truly open-source alternative where the images are always maintained by the upstream projects, not by a third-party vendor that may change licensing or deprecate the free tier.

• Chart source: https://github.com/helmforgedev/charts
• ArtifactHub: https://artifacthub.io/packages/search?repo=helmforge
• Comparison: https://helmforge.dev/docs/comparison

Environment you are Lens application on:

• Kubernetes distribution: Any (tested on k3d, OKE)
• Desktop OS: Windows, macOS, Linux

[clrothmann]

Hi @mberlofa, thanks for taking the time to put this together -- really well done. You raise a valid point, our Helm repository list needs to be refreshed and we're going to address that internally. We appreciate you flagging this. In the meantime, HelmForge works great as a custom Helm repository in Lens -- you can add it via Preferences > Helm > Add Custom Helm Repo using https://repo.helmforge.dev. We'll keep this issue updated.