/implementing-gitops

name: implementing-gitops
description: Implement GitOps continuous delivery for Kubernetes using ArgoCD or Flux. Use for automated deployments with Git as single source of truth, pull-based delivery, drift detection, multi-cluster management, and progressive rollouts.

GitOps Workflows

Implement GitOps continuous delivery for Kubernetes using declarative, pull-based deployment models where Git serves as the single source of truth for infrastructure and application configuration.

When to Use

Use GitOps workflows for:

• **Kubernetes Deployments:** Automating application and infrastructure deployments to Kubernetes clusters
• **Multi-Cluster Management:** Managing deployments across development, staging, production, and edge clusters
• **Continuous Delivery:** Implementing pull-based CD pipelines with automated reconciliation
• **Drift Detection:** Automatically detecting and correcting configuration drift from desired state
• **Audit Requirements:** Maintaining complete audit trails via Git commits for compliance
• **Progressive Delivery:** Implementing canary, blue-green, or rolling deployment strategies
• **Disaster Recovery:** Enabling rapid cluster recovery with GitOps bootstrap processes

Trigger keywords: "deploy to Kubernetes", "ArgoCD setup", "Flux bootstrap", "GitOps pipeline", "environment promotion", "multi-cluster deployment", "automated reconciliation"

Core GitOps Principles

1. Git as Single Source of Truth

All system configuration stored in Git repositories. No manual kubectl apply or cluster modifications. Declarative manifests (YAML) for all Kubernetes resources, environment-specific overlays, infrastructure configuration, and application deployments.

2. Pull-Based Deployment

Operators running inside clusters pull changes from Git and apply them automatically. Benefits include no cluster credentials in CI/CD pipelines, support for air-gapped environments, self-healing through continuous reconciliation, and simplified CI/CD.

3. Automated Reconciliation

GitOps operators continuously compare actual cluster state with desired state in Git and reconcile differences through a continuous loop: watch Git, compare live state, apply differences, report status, repeat.

4. Declarative Configuration

Use declarative Kubernetes manifests (not imperative scripts) to define desired state.

Tool Selection

ArgoCD vs Flux

| Decision Factor | Choose ArgoCD | Choose Flux | |----------------|---------------|-------------| | **Team Preference** | Visual management with web UI | CLI/API-first workflows | | **Learning Curve** | Easier onboarding with UI | Steeper but more flexible | | **Architecture** | Monolithic, stateful controller | Modular, stateless controllers | | **Multi-Tenancy** | Built-in RBAC and projects | Kubernetes-native RBAC | | **Resource Usage** | Higher (includes UI components) | Lower (minimal controllers) | | **Best For** | Transitioning to GitOps | Platform engineering |

**Hybrid Approach:** Some teams use Flux for infrastructure and ArgoCD for applications.

For ArgoCD implementation patterns, see references/argocd-patterns.md For Flux implementation patterns, see references/flux-patterns.md For Kustomize overlay patterns, see references/kustomize-overlays.md

Quick Start

ArgoCD Installation

kubectl create namespace argocd
kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml

**Basic Application:**

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: myapp
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://github.com/org/repo.git
    targetRevision: HEAD
    path: k8s/overlays/prod
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: myapp
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      prune: true
      selfHeal: true

Flux Bootstrap

flux bootstrap github \
  --owner=myorg \
  --repository=fleet-infra \
  --branch=main \
  --path=clusters/production

**Basic Kustomization:**

apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: Kustomization
metadata:
  name: myapp
  namespace: flux-system
spec:
  interval: 10m
  path: "./k8s/prod"
  prune: true
  sourceRef:
    kind: GitRepository
    name: myapp

For complete examples, see examples/argocd/ and examples/flux/

Environment Promotion

**Branch-Based Strategy:** dev branch → staging branch → main branch (prod) **Kustomize-Based Strategy:** k8s/base/ → k8s/overlays/{dev,staging,prod}/

**Promotion Process:** 1. Merge code changes to main branch 2. CI builds container image with tag 3. Update image tag in environment overlay (Git commit) 4. GitOps operator detects change and deploys 5. Test in environment 6. Promote to next environment by updating Git

For multi-environment ApplicationSet patterns, see references/argocd-patterns.md

Multi-Cluster Management

**ArgoCD:** Register external clusters with argocd CLI, use ApplicationSets to generate Applications per cluster, manage from single ArgoCD instance.

**Flux:** Bootstrap Flux per cluster, use same Git repo with cluster-specific paths, configure remote clusters via kubeConfig secrets.

For detailed multi-cluster patterns, see references/multi-cluster.md

Progressive Delivery

**Canary Deployments:** Gradually shift traffic to new version, monitor metrics during rollout, automated rollback on failures.

**Blue-Green Deployments:** Deploy new version alongside old, switch traffic atomically, instant rollback if issues detected.

**ArgoCD:** Use Argo Rollouts for progressive delivery **Flux:** Integrate Flagger for automated canary analysis

For progressive delivery strategies and Argo Rollouts examples, see references/progressive-delivery.md

Secret Management

GitOps requires storing configuration in Git, but secrets must be protected.

| Tool | Approach | Security | Complexity | |------|----------|----------|------------| | **Sealed Secrets** | Encrypt