diff --git a/cmd/helm/init.go b/cmd/helm/init.go
index c0e091041..1546860c6 100644
--- a/cmd/helm/init.go
+++ b/cmd/helm/init.go
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ func ensureHome(home helmpath.Home, out io.Writer) error {
 		}
 		cif := home.CacheIndex(stableRepository)
 		if err := repo.DownloadIndexFile(stableRepository, stableRepositoryURL, cif); err != nil {
-			fmt.Fprintf(out, "WARNING: Failed to download %s: %s (run 'helm update')\n", stableRepository, err)
+			fmt.Fprintf(out, "WARNING: Failed to download %s: %s (run 'helm repo update')\n", stableRepository, err)
 		}
 	} else if fi.IsDir() {
 		return fmt.Errorf("%s must be a file, not a directory", repoFile)
diff --git a/cmd/helm/search.go b/cmd/helm/search.go
index f8b02cff8..61ee4bb15 100644
--- a/cmd/helm/search.go
+++ b/cmd/helm/search.go
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ func (s *searchCmd) buildIndex() (*search.Index, error) {
 		f := s.helmhome.CacheIndex(n)
 		ind, err := repo.LoadIndexFile(f)
 		if err != nil {
-			fmt.Fprintf(s.out, "WARNING: Repo %q is corrupt or missing. Try 'helm update':\n\t%s\n", f, err)
+			fmt.Fprintf(s.out, "WARNING: Repo %q is corrupt or missing. Try 'helm repo update':\n\t%s\n", f, err)
 			continue
 		}
 
diff --git a/pkg/repo/index.go b/pkg/repo/index.go
index 42f751955..a8589aa19 100644
--- a/pkg/repo/index.go
+++ b/pkg/repo/index.go
@@ -17,7 +17,9 @@ limitations under the License.
 package repo
 
 import (
+	"encoding/json"
 	"errors"
+	"fmt"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"net/http"
 	"os"
@@ -39,8 +41,14 @@ var indexPath = "index.yaml"
 // APIVersionV1 is the v1 API version for index and repository files.
 const APIVersionV1 = "v1"
 
-// ErrNoAPIVersion indicates that an API version was not specified.
-var ErrNoAPIVersion = errors.New("no API version specified")
+var (
+	// ErrNoAPIVersion indicates that an API version was not specified.
+	ErrNoAPIVersion = errors.New("no API version specified")
+	// ErrNoChartVersion indicates that a chart with the given version is not found.
+	ErrNoChartVersion = errors.New("no chart version found")
+	// ErrNoChartName indicates that a chart with the given name is not found.
+	ErrNoChartName = errors.New("no chart name found")
+)
 
 // ChartVersions is a list of versioned chart references.
 // Implements a sorter on Version.
@@ -86,8 +94,12 @@ func NewIndexFile() *IndexFile {
 
 // Add adds a file to the index
 func (i IndexFile) Add(md *chart.Metadata, filename, baseURL, digest string) {
+	u := filename
+	if baseURL != "" {
+		u = baseURL + "/" + filename
+	}
 	cr := &ChartVersion{
-		URLs:     []string{baseURL + "/" + filename},
+		URLs:     []string{u},
 		Metadata: md,
 		Digest:   digest,
 		Created:  time.Now(),
@@ -101,17 +113,8 @@ func (i IndexFile) Add(md *chart.Metadata, filename, baseURL, digest string) {
 
 // Has returns true if the index has an entry for a chart with the given name and exact version.
 func (i IndexFile) Has(name, version string) bool {
-	vs, ok := i.Entries[name]
-	if !ok {
-		return false
-	}
-	for _, ver := range vs {
-		// TODO: Do we need to normalize the version field with the SemVer lib?
-		if ver.Version == version {
-			return true
-		}
-	}
-	return false
+	_, err := i.Get(name, version)
+	return err == nil
 }
 
 // SortEntries sorts the entries by version in descending order.
@@ -126,6 +129,26 @@ func (i IndexFile) SortEntries() {
 	}
 }
 
+// Get returns the ChartVersion for the given name.
+//
+// If version is empty, this will return the chart with the highest version.
+func (i IndexFile) Get(name, version string) (*ChartVersion, error) {
+	vs, ok := i.Entries[name]
+	if !ok {
+		return nil, ErrNoChartName
+	}
+	if version == "" && len(vs) > 0 {
+		return vs[0], nil
+	}
+	for _, ver := range vs {
+		// TODO: Do we need to normalize the version field with the SemVer lib?
+		if ver.Version == version {
+			return ver, nil
+		}
+	}
+	return nil, ErrNoChartVersion
+}
+
 // WriteFile writes an index file to the given destination path.
 //
 // The mode on the file is set to 'mode'.
@@ -207,11 +230,59 @@ func LoadIndex(data []byte) (*IndexFile, error) {
 		return i, err
 	}
 	if i.APIVersion == "" {
-		return i, ErrNoAPIVersion
+		// When we leave Beta, we should remove legacy support and just
+		// return this error:
+		//return i, ErrNoAPIVersion
+		return loadUnversionedIndex(data)
 	}
 	return i, nil
 }
 
+// unversionedEntry represents a deprecated pre-Alpha.5 format.
+//
+// This will be removed prior to v2.0.0
+type unversionedEntry struct {
+	Checksum  string          `json:"checksum"`
+	URL       string          `json:"url"`
+	Chartfile *chart.Metadata `json:"chartfile"`
+}
+
+// loadUnversionedIndex loads a pre-Alpha.5 index.yaml file.
+//
+// This format is deprecated. This function will be removed prior to v2.0.0.
+func loadUnversionedIndex(data []byte) (*IndexFile, error) {
+	fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, "WARNING: Deprecated index file format. Try 'helm repo update'")
+	i := map[string]unversionedEntry{}
+
+	// This gets around an error in the YAML parser. Instead of parsing as YAML,
+	// we convert to JSON, and then decode again.
+	var err error
+	data, err = yaml.YAMLToJSON(data)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(data, &i); err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	if len(i) == 0 {
+		return nil, ErrNoAPIVersion
+	}
+	ni := NewIndexFile()
+	for n, item := range i {
+		if item.Chartfile == nil || item.Chartfile.Name == "" {
+			parts := strings.Split(n, "-")
+			ver := ""
+			if len(parts) > 1 {
+				ver = strings.TrimSuffix(parts[1], ".tgz")
+			}
+			item.Chartfile = &chart.Metadata{Name: parts[0], Version: ver}
+		}
+		ni.Add(item.Chartfile, item.URL, "", item.Checksum)
+	}
+	return ni, nil
+}
+
 // LoadIndexFile takes a file at the given path and returns an IndexFile object
 func LoadIndexFile(path string) (*IndexFile, error) {
 	b, err := ioutil.ReadFile(path)
diff --git a/pkg/repo/index_test.go b/pkg/repo/index_test.go
index a73cd0352..e5f5256a2 100644
--- a/pkg/repo/index_test.go
+++ b/pkg/repo/index_test.go
@@ -250,3 +250,23 @@ func TestIndexDirectory(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Errorf("Expected frobnitz, got %q", frob.Name)
 	}
 }
+
+func TestLoadUnversionedIndex(t *testing.T) {
+	data, err := ioutil.ReadFile("testdata/unversioned-index.yaml")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	ind, err := loadUnversionedIndex(data)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	if l := len(ind.Entries); l != 2 {
+		t.Fatalf("Expected 2 entries, got %d", l)
+	}
+
+	if l := len(ind.Entries["mysql"]); l != 3 {
+		t.Fatalf("Expected 3 mysql versions, got %d", l)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/pkg/repo/testdata/unversioned-index.yaml b/pkg/repo/testdata/unversioned-index.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7299c66dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/repo/testdata/unversioned-index.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+memcached-0.1.0:
+  name: memcached
+  url: https://mumoshu.github.io/charts/memcached-0.1.0.tgz
+  created: 2016-08-04 02:05:02.259205055 +0000 UTC
+  checksum: ce9b76576c4b4eb74286fa30a978c56d69e7a522
+  chartfile:
+    name: memcached
+    home: http://https://hub.docker.com/_/memcached/
+    sources: []
+    version: 0.1.0
+    description: A simple Memcached cluster
+    keywords: []
+    maintainers:
+    - name: Matt Butcher
+      email: mbutcher@deis.com
+    engine: ""
+mysql-0.2.0:
+  name: mysql
+  url: https://mumoshu.github.io/charts/mysql-0.2.0.tgz
+  created: 2016-08-04 00:42:47.517342022 +0000 UTC
+  checksum: aa5edd2904d639b0b6295f1c7cf4c0a8e4f77dd3
+  chartfile:
+    name: mysql
+    home: https://www.mysql.com/
+    sources: []
+    version: 0.2.0
+    description: Chart running MySQL.
+    keywords: []
+    maintainers:
+    - name: Matt Fisher
+      email: mfisher@deis.com
+    engine: ""
+mysql-0.2.1:
+  name: mysql
+  url: https://mumoshu.github.io/charts/mysql-0.2.1.tgz
+  created: 2016-08-04 02:40:29.717829534 +0000 UTC
+  checksum: 9d9f056171beefaaa04db75680319ca4edb6336a
+  chartfile:
+    name: mysql
+    home: https://www.mysql.com/
+    sources: []
+    version: 0.2.1
+    description: Chart running MySQL.
+    keywords: []
+    maintainers:
+    - name: Matt Fisher
+      email: mfisher@deis.com
+    engine: ""
+mysql-0.2.2:
+  name: mysql
+  url: https://mumoshu.github.io/charts/mysql-0.2.2.tgz
+  created: 2016-08-04 02:40:29.71841952 +0000 UTC
+  checksum: 6d6810e76a5987943faf0040ec22990d9fb141c7
+  chartfile:
+    name: mysql
+    home: https://www.mysql.com/
+    sources: []
+    version: 0.2.2
+    description: Chart running MySQL.
+    keywords: []
+    maintainers:
+    - name: Matt Fisher
+      email: mfisher@deis.com
+    engine: ""