kubernetes
ArgoCD Application Generator
Generate an ArgoCD Application manifest for GitOps deployments. Supports directory, Kustomize, and Helm chart sources with automated or manual sync policies.
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ArgoCD GitOps Patterns
ArgoCD continuously reconciles your cluster state with Git. The Application CRD is the core abstraction — it links a Git source to a cluster destination.
Sync Waves
Control the order resources are applied using annotations:
metadata:
annotations:
argocd.argoproj.io/sync-wave: "1" # lower = earlierTypical order: Namespace (wave -1) → CRDs (wave 0) → Deployments (wave 1) → Ingress (wave 2).
Health Checks
ArgoCD has built-in health checks for Deployments, StatefulSets, PVCs, etc. For custom resources, define a Lua health check:
resource.customizations.health.argoproj.io_Application: |
hs = {}
if obj.status ~= nil then
if obj.status.health.status == "Healthy" then
hs.status = "Healthy"
end
end
return hsImage Updater
ArgoCD Image Updater watches a container registry and automatically updates the image tag in Git when a new version is pushed — completing the CI/CD loop without manual intervention.
Key Terms
Full glossary →kubeadm
A tool for bootstrapping Kubernetes clusters. It automates the setup of control plane components and joining worker nodes, following Kubernetes best practices.
etcd
A distributed key-value store used by Kubernetes to store all cluster state and configuration. etcd is the single source of truth for the entire cluster.
cert-manager
A Kubernetes controller for automating TLS certificate management. cert-manager can issue certificates from Let's Encrypt, Vault, or internal CAs, and automatically renews them.
Helm
A package manager for Kubernetes. Helm charts bundle Kubernetes manifests into reusable packages with configurable values, versioned and published to chart repositories.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the ArgoCD finalizer do?
The resources-finalizer.argocd.argoproj.io finalizer tells ArgoCD to delete all managed Kubernetes resources when the Application is deleted. Without it, deleting the Application in ArgoCD leaves all the deployed resources running in the cluster (orphaned). Always include it in production.
What's the difference between selfHeal and prune?
selfHeal: ArgoCD watches the cluster and reverts manual changes (kubectl edit, kubectl apply) to match Git. prune: when you delete a resource from Git, ArgoCD deletes it from the cluster. Neither is enabled by default in raw ArgoCD — this generator defaults both to true for full GitOps discipline, since that's the recommended production setup; toggle them off above if you want manual control instead.
How do I manage secrets with ArgoCD?
ArgoCD doesn't manage secrets directly — store encrypted secrets in Git using Sealed Secrets or SOPS, or use External Secrets Operator to pull secrets from Vault/AWS SSM. Never store plaintext secrets in your GitOps repo.
What is the App of Apps pattern?
Instead of creating ArgoCD Applications manually, create one 'root' Application that points to a folder containing other Application manifests. ArgoCD deploys the root, which then deploys all child apps. This lets you manage an entire cluster's applications from a single Git repository.
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