gitops-workflow

Name: gitops-workflow
Author: W. Shobson

GitOpsKubernetesArgoCDFlux CDCI/CDDevOpsDeclarativeAutomationCloud-Native

⭐ 36.8k📄 MIT🕒 2026-06-16Source ↗

Install this skill

npx skills add wshobson/agents

Works across Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot & Antigravity

The GitOps workflow skill focuses on establishing Kubernetes cluster states that strictly mirror source code repositories. By treating Git as the single source of truth, it ensures that your cluster configuration, application deployments, and infrastructure components remain synchronized through automated reconciliation agents. This skill encompasses the technical implementation of either ArgoCD or Flux CD, enabling developers to manage environment-specific configurations, progressive delivery strategies, and secure secret handling without manual kubectl interventions. By adhering to the core OpenGitOps principles of declarative, immutable, and versioned state, this skill provides a rigorous framework for continuous delivery. It facilitates environment consistency across staging and production clusters, eliminates configuration drift, and maintains a clear audit log of every change applied to your container orchestration platform.

When to Use This Skill

•Standardizing deployment patterns across dev, staging, and production namespaces
•Enforcing configuration consistency in multi-tenant Kubernetes environments
•Reducing downtime during release cycles with automated rollbacks and progressive delivery
•Implementing strict audit trails for infrastructure changes via Git commit history

How to Invoke This Skill

Example prompts that trigger this skill in Claude Code, Cursor, or Antigravity:

“Set up ArgoCD for my Kubernetes cluster
“Implement a GitOps pipeline for production deployments
“How to manage multi-environment configs using Flux CD
“Automate Kubernetes application synchronization from my GitHub repository
“Configure progressive delivery for my microservices

Pro Tips

💡Always use separate Git repositories for application manifests and infrastructure configuration to maintain clear separation of concerns.
💡Implement robust secret management solutions (e.g., Sealed Secrets, External Secrets Operator) to keep sensitive data encrypted in your Git repositories.
💡Start with a single application or environment to refine your GitOps workflow before scaling to more complex deployments.

What this skill does

•Declarative configuration management for Kubernetes clusters
•Automated sync and self-healing of cluster resources via controller reconciliation
•Multi-cluster environment propagation using the App of Apps pattern
•Canary and blue-green deployment orchestration with Argo Rollouts
•External Secret integration for secure credential injection into Git-managed workflows

When not to use it

✕High-frequency manual experimentation on local clusters where constant reconciliation triggers conflicts
✕Environments requiring immediate 'hot-fixes' that must bypass version control workflows

Example workflow

Install the GitOps controller into the target Kubernetes cluster
Define a Git repository containing Kubernetes manifests or Helm charts
Create an Application resource in the cluster pointing to the repository path
Set the sync policy to automated for continuous reconciliation
Push changes to the Git branch to trigger cluster updates

Prerequisites

–A running Kubernetes cluster
–Administrative access with kubectl
–A Git repository for configuration storage

Pitfalls & limitations

!Direct manual edits to cluster resources will be overwritten by the reconciliation agent
!Exposing sensitive data in plain text within the Git repository
!Bootstrapping cyclic dependencies where the GitOps agent is removed by its own configuration

FAQ

What happens if I make a change with kubectl?

If self-healing is enabled, the GitOps controller will detect the drift and automatically overwrite your manual change to restore the state defined in Git.

Should I store production secrets in my Git repository?

No. Always use tools like Sealed Secrets or the External Secrets Operator to keep actual credentials outside of your version control system.

What is the App of Apps pattern?

It is a strategy where a parent ArgoCD application manages a set of child applications, allowing you to bootstrap entire environments with a single root configuration.

How it compares

Unlike manual deployments via scripts or CI pipelines that 'push' to clusters, GitOps uses 'pull' reconciliation to ensure the cluster state never deviates from the declared Git state.

Source & trust

⭐ 37k stars📄 MIT🕒 Updated 2026-06-16

View original skill on GitHub →

📄 Full skill instructions — original source: wshobson/agents

# GitOps Workflow

Complete guide to implementing GitOps workflows with ArgoCD and Flux for automated Kubernetes deployments.

## Purpose

Implement declarative, Git-based continuous delivery for Kubernetes using ArgoCD or Flux CD, following OpenGitOps principles.

## When to Use This Skill

- Set up GitOps for Kubernetes clusters
- Automate application deployments from Git
- Implement progressive delivery strategies
- Manage multi-cluster deployments
- Configure automated sync policies
- Set up secret management in GitOps

## OpenGitOps Principles

1. **Declarative** - Entire system described declaratively
2. **Versioned and Immutable** - Desired state stored in Git
3. **Pulled Automatically** - Software agents pull desired state
4. **Continuously Reconciled** - Agents reconcile actual vs desired state

## ArgoCD Setup

### 1. Installation

# Create namespace
kubectl create namespace argocd

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

# Get admin password
kubectl -n argocd get secret argocd-initial-admin-secret -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 -d

**Reference:** See references/argocd-setup.md for detailed setup

### 2. Repository Structure

gitops-repo/
├── apps/
│   ├── production/
│   │   ├── app1/
│   │   │   ├── kustomization.yaml
│   │   │   └── deployment.yaml
│   │   └── app2/
│   └── staging/
├── infrastructure/
│   ├── ingress-nginx/
│   ├── cert-manager/
│   └── monitoring/
└── argocd/
    ├── applications/
    └── projects/

### 3. Create Application

# argocd/applications/my-app.yaml
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: my-app
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://github.com/org/gitops-repo
    targetRevision: main
    path: apps/production/my-app
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: production
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      prune: true
      selfHeal: true
    syncOptions:
      - CreateNamespace=true

### 4. App of Apps Pattern

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: applications
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://github.com/org/gitops-repo
    targetRevision: main
    path: argocd/applications
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: argocd
  syncPolicy:
    automated: {}

## Flux CD Setup

### 1. Installation

# Install Flux CLI
curl -s https://fluxcd.io/install.sh | sudo bash

# Bootstrap Flux
flux bootstrap github \
  --owner=org \
  --repository=gitops-repo \
  --branch=main \
  --path=clusters/production \
  --personal

### 2. Create GitRepository

apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: GitRepository
metadata:
  name: my-app
  namespace: flux-system
spec:
  interval: 1m
  url: https://github.com/org/my-app
  ref:
    branch: main

### 3. Create Kustomization

apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: Kustomization
metadata:
  name: my-app
  namespace: flux-system
spec:
  interval: 5m
  path: ./deploy
  prune: true
  sourceRef:
    kind: GitRepository
    name: my-app

## Sync Policies

### Auto-Sync Configuration

**ArgoCD:**

syncPolicy:
  automated:
    prune: true # Delete resources not in Git
    selfHeal: true # Reconcile manual changes
    allowEmpty: false
  retry:
    limit: 5
    backoff:
      duration: 5s
      factor: 2
      maxDuration: 3m

**Flux:**

spec:
  interval: 1m
  prune: true
  wait: true
  timeout: 5m

**Reference:** See references/sync-policies.md

## Progressive Delivery

### Canary Deployment with ArgoCD Rollouts

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Rollout
metadata:
  name: my-app
spec:
  replicas: 5
  strategy:
    canary:
      steps:
        - setWeight: 20
        - pause: { duration: 1m }
        - setWeight: 50
        - pause: { duration: 2m }
        - setWeight: 100

### Blue-Green Deployment

strategy:
  blueGreen:
    activeService: my-app
    previewService: my-app-preview
    autoPromotionEnabled: false

## Secret Management

### External Secrets Operator

apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1beta1
kind: ExternalSecret
metadata:
  name: db-credentials
spec:
  refreshInterval: 1h
  secretStoreRef:
    name: aws-secrets-manager
    kind: SecretStore
  target:
    name: db-credentials
  data:
    - secretKey: password
      remoteRef:
        key: prod/db/password

### Sealed Secrets

# Encrypt secret
kubeseal --format yaml < secret.yaml > sealed-secret.yaml

# Commit sealed-secret.yaml to Git

## Best Practices

1. **Use separate repos or branches** for different environments
2. **Implement RBAC** for Git repositories
3. **Enable notifications** for sync failures
4. **Use health checks** for custom resources
5. **Implement approval gates** for production
6. **Keep secrets out of Git** (use External Secrets)
7. **Use App of Apps pattern** for organization
8. **Tag releases** for easy rollback
9. **Monitor sync status** with alerts
10. **Test changes** in staging first

## Troubleshooting

**Sync failures:**

argocd app get my-app
argocd app sync my-app --prune

**Out of sync status:**

argocd app diff my-app
argocd app sync my-app --force

## Related Skills

- k8s-manifest-generator - For creating manifests
- helm-chart-scaffolding - For packaging applications

By W. Shobson

How to Use This Skill Unit

Option A: Project-Specific (Recommended)

Click "Download" above
In your project, create the directory: .agent/skills/gitops-workflow/
Save the file as SKILL.md
The agent will automatically discover the skill based on its description.

Option B: Global Installation (All Agents)

Save the file to these locations to make it available across all projects:

Claude Code: ~/.claude/skills/wshobson/agents/gitops-workflow/SKILL.md
Cursor: ~/.cursor/skills/wshobson/agents/gitops-workflow/SKILL.md
Antigravity: ~/.gemini/antigravity/skills/wshobson/agents/gitops-workflow/SKILL.md

🚀 Install with CLI:
npx skills add wshobson/agents

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