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ArgoCD

ArgoCD is a CNCF-graduated GitOps continuous-delivery controller for Kubernetes. A Git repository declares the desired state of a set of Kubernetes manifests (Deployments, Services, CRDs, …); ArgoCD runs as a K8s controller that continuously compares cluster state with the repo and either syncs automatically or flags drift for operator review.

The load-bearing design property is Git as the single source of truth (concepts/gitops) — deploys happen by merging a pull request, not by running a CLI; rollbacks happen by reverting a commit; audit trail is the commit log.

ArgoCD pairs naturally with Crossplane to form a uniform Kubernetes-API control surface for both applications and infrastructure: Crossplane makes cloud resources look like K8s CRs, ArgoCD reconciles any K8s CRs including Crossplane's. One GitOps workflow covers both layers.

Multi-source Applications (v2.6+)

Argo CD's multi-source Application feature (GA in v2.6, early 2023) allows a single Application CRD to reference multiple sources — canonical example being one repoURL for an upstream Helm chart and a separate repoURL for the customer's values file. The Helm source references the values source via a named ref: label. This decouples chart maintenance from customer config ownership — see patterns/argocd-multi-source-helm-plus-values for the canonical wiki pattern.

Helm + Kustomize composition

Argo CD auto-detects the build tool from the source directory contents: Chart.yaml → Helm, kustomization.yaml → Kustomize, plain YAML → directly applied. When Kustomize is used to wrap a Helm chart via helmCharts (see patterns/kustomize-wraps-helm-chart), Argo CD needs kustomize.buildOptions: --enable-helm on the argocd-cm ConfigMap — Kustomize's Helm inflation is off by default for supply-chain reasons. Enabling it is a platform-wide toggle (affects all Applications).

Runtime-API tension

Under a GitOps deployment shape, runtime CRUD APIs (Kubernetes API, and increasingly application-level REST APIs like Redpanda Connect Streams-mode) can either be GitOps-aligned (automation derives calls from Git) or GitOps anti-patterns (humans mutate runtime state without Git commit). Argo CD's selfHeal: true + prune: true sync policy aggressively reverts non-Git drift — compatible with the aligned shape, hostile to the anti-pattern shape. See concepts/runtime-api-vs-gitops-source-of-truth.

Seen in

  • sources/2025-12-02-redpanda-operationalize-redpanda-connect-with-gitops — canonical Argo CD multi-source + Kustomize-Helm composition wiki instance. 2025-12-02 Redpanda unsigned tutorial ships two Argo CD Applications for Redpanda Connect — one using the multi-source Helm + values split for Standalone mode, one using Kustomize-wraps-Helm for Streams mode. kustomize.buildOptions: --enable-helm --load-restrictor LoadRestrictionsNone patched onto argocd-cm + repo-server + application-controller rollout-restart as preconditions. sync policy: { automated: { prune: true, selfHeal: true } } on both. Canonical instance of the observability stack (kube-prometheus-stack) as a parallel Argo CD Application alongside the primary workload.
  • sources/2026-02-26-aws-santander-catalyst-platform-engineering — Santander Catalyst's data-plane claims component is "managed by ArgoCD, a continuous delivery tool ... responsible for continuous synchronization and deployment of application stacks (integrated sets of cloud resources) and configurations, exploring the GitOps concept." Paired with Crossplane (stacks catalog) + OPA Gatekeeper (policies catalog) on the same EKS control plane cluster.

Stub page — ArgoCD internals (app-of-apps pattern, sync waves, ApplicationSet, Rollouts integration) out of scope until a future source drills into them.

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