diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 03ead65..e8baf83 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ A GitHub action to turn a GitHub project into a self-hosted Helm chart repo, usi
 - `charts_dir`: The charts directory
 - `skip_packaging`: This option, when populated, will skip the packaging step. This allows you to do more advanced packaging of your charts (for example, with the `helm package` command) before this action runs. This action will only handle the indexing and publishing steps.
 - `mark_as_latest`: When you set this to `false`, it will mark the created GitHub release not as 'latest'.
+- `packages_with_index`: When you set this to `true`, it will upload chart packages directly into publishing branch.
 
 ### Outputs
 
diff --git a/action.yml b/action.yml
index 0ae62cf..7627f48 100644
--- a/action.yml
+++ b/action.yml
@@ -32,6 +32,9 @@ inputs:
     description: Mark the created GitHub release as 'latest'
     required: false
     default: true
+  packages_with_index:
+    description: "Upload chart packages directly into publishing branch"
+    required: false
 outputs:
   changed_charts:
     description: "A comma-separated list of charts that were released on this run. Will be an empty string if no updates were detected, will be unset if `--skip_packaging` is used: in the latter case your custom packaging step is responsible for setting its own outputs if you need them."
@@ -84,6 +87,10 @@ runs:
             args+=(--mark-as-latest "${{ inputs.mark_as_latest }}")
         fi
 
+        if [[ -n "${{ inputs.packages_with_index }}" ]]; then
+            args+=(--packages-with-index "${{ inputs.packages_with_index }}")
+        fi
+
         "$GITHUB_ACTION_PATH/cr.sh" "${args[@]}"
 
         if [[ -f changed_charts.txt ]]; then
diff --git a/cr.sh b/cr.sh
index 8fcfea3..48804a9 100755
--- a/cr.sh
+++ b/cr.sh
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ main() {
   local skip_packaging=
   local skip_existing=
   local mark_as_latest=true
+  local packages_with_index=false
 
   parse_command_line "$@"
 
@@ -194,6 +195,12 @@ parse_command_line() {
         shift
       fi
       ;;
+    --packages-with-index)
+      if [[ -n "${2:-}" ]]; then
+        packages_with_index="$2"
+        shift
+      fi
+      ;;
     *)
       break
       ;;
@@ -295,7 +302,9 @@ release_charts() {
   if [[ -n "$config" ]]; then
     args+=(--config "$config")
   fi
-  if [[ -n "$skip_existing" ]]; then
+  if [[ -n "$packages_with_index" ]]; then
+    args+=(--packages-with-index --push --skip-existing)
+  elif [[ -n "$skip_existing" ]]; then
     args+=(--skip-existing)
   fi
   if [[ "$mark_as_latest" = false ]]; then
@@ -311,6 +320,9 @@ update_index() {
   if [[ -n "$config" ]]; then
     args+=(--config "$config")
   fi
+  if [[ -n "$packages_with_index" ]]; then
+    args+=(--packages-with-index --index-path .)
+  fi
 
   echo 'Updating charts repo index...'
   cr index "${args[@]}"