gitops

ArgoCD GitOps repository. Contains all application and platform definitions deployed to Kubernetes clusters.

The companion infrastructure repository (Terraform + Minikube) bootstraps ArgoCD and points it here.

---

How it works

ArgoCD manages itself entirely through this repo via an App-of-Apps pattern:

[Terraform] ──bootstraps──> bootstrap    (ArgoCD Application)
                                │
                                └──watches──> clusters/local/
                                                    │
                                          ┌─────────┴──────────┐
                                          ▼                     ▼
                                       platform              demo (+ future apps)
                                          │
                                    platform/local/
                                    (ingress-nginx, ...)

• Terraform creates a single seed Application called bootstrap
• bootstrap reads bootstrap/local.yaml and creates the local Application
• local reads clusters/local/ and creates one Application per file found there
• Each Application then manages its own resources on the cluster

---

Repository structure

gitops/
│
├── bootstrap/
│   └── local.yaml              # "local" ArgoCD Application (watches clusters/local/)
│
├── clusters/
│   └── local/                  # One directory per cluster environment
│       ├── demo.yml            # Deploys the demo Helm chart (values-local.yaml)
│       └── platform.yml        # Deploys platform tools (points to platform/local/)
│
├── platform/
│   └── local/                  # Platform tools for the local cluster
│       └── ingress-nginx.yml   # ArgoCD Application: ingress-nginx Helm release
│
└── apps/
    └── demo/                   # Helm chart for the demo nginx app
        ├── Chart.yaml
        ├── values.yaml         # Default values (production-ish baseline)
        ├── values-local.yaml   # Local overrides (smaller resources, demo.local host)
        └── templates/
            ├── deployment.yaml
            ├── service.yaml
            └── ingress.yaml

---

Adding a new application

1. Create a Helm chart under apps/<your-app>/:

apps/your-app/
├── Chart.yaml
├── values.yaml           # sensible defaults, treat as prod baseline
├── values-local.yaml     # local overrides
└── templates/
    └── ...

2. Add an ArgoCD Application in clusters/local/your-app.yml:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: your-app
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://github.com/IntegratedDynamic/gitops.git
    targetRevision: main
    path: apps/your-app
    helm:
      valueFiles:
        - values-local.yaml
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: your-app
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      prune: true
      selfHeal: true
    syncOptions:
      - CreateNamespace=true

ArgoCD picks it up automatically — no manual sync needed.

---

Adding a new cluster environment

Say you're adding staging:

1. Add environment values for each app that needs overrides:

   apps/demo/values-staging.yaml
   

2. Add platform tools for the new cluster:

   platform/staging/ingress-nginx.yml   # e.g. with LoadBalancer instead of NodePort
   

3. Add cluster entry point in clusters/staging/:

   clusters/staging/demo.yml      # same structure as local, different valueFiles
   clusters/staging/platform.yml  # points to platform/staging/
   

4. Add a bootstrap manifest in bootstrap/:

   bootstrap/staging.yaml   # same structure as local.yaml, points to clusters/staging/
   

5. Point Terraform (or your cluster provisioner) at bootstrap/staging.yaml to seed it.

Only the values files and cluster entry points differ — the charts themselves are never duplicated.

---

Adding a platform tool (e.g. cert-manager)

Platform tools are ArgoCD Applications that install Helm charts from external repositories. Add a file per tool under platform/<env>/:

# platform/local/cert-manager.yml
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: cert-manager
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://charts.jetstack.io
    chart: cert-manager
    targetRevision: v1.17.0
    helm:
      values: |
        installCRDs: true
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: cert-manager
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      prune: true
      selfHeal: true
    syncOptions:
      - CreateNamespace=true

The platform App-of-Apps picks it up automatically.

---

Accessing the demo app (local)

After mise run reset && mise run dev in the infrastructure repo:

# Add demo.local to /etc/hosts
echo "$(minikube ip)  demo.local" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts

# Check it's up
curl http://demo.local