GitOps Workflows

Expert guidance for implementing production-grade GitOps workflows using ArgoCD and Flux CD, covering declarative deployment patterns, progressive delivery strategies, multi-environment management, and secure secret handling for Kubernetes infrastructure.

When to Use This Skill

Implementing GitOps principles for Kubernetes deployments
Automating continuous delivery from Git repositories
Managing multi-cluster or multi-environment deployments
Implementing progressive delivery (canary, blue-green) strategies
Configuring automated sync policies and reconciliation
Managing secrets securely in GitOps workflows
Setting up environment promotion workflows
Designing repository structures for GitOps (monorepo vs multi-repo)
Implementing rollback strategies and disaster recovery
Establishing compliance and audit trails through Git

Core Concepts

The Four Principles

Declarative: Entire system state expressed in code
Versioned: Canonical state stored in Git with full history
Pulled Automatically: Agents pull desired state (no push to prod)
Continuously Reconciled: Automatic drift detection and correction

Key Benefits

Complete deployment history and audit trail
Fast rollback via Git operations
Enhanced security (no cluster credentials in CI)
Self-healing infrastructure
Multi-cluster consistency
Familiar Git workflows for infrastructure changes

Quick Reference

Task	Load reference
GitOps principles and benefits	`skills/gitops-workflows/references/core-principles.md`
Repository structure patterns (monorepo, multi-repo, branches)	`skills/gitops-workflows/references/repository-structures.md`
ArgoCD setup, Applications, ApplicationSets	`skills/gitops-workflows/references/argocd-implementation.md`
Flux bootstrap, sources, Kustomizations, HelmReleases	`skills/gitops-workflows/references/flux-implementation.md`
Environment promotion strategies	`skills/gitops-workflows/references/environment-promotion.md`
Secret management (Sealed Secrets, ESO, SOPS)	`skills/gitops-workflows/references/secret-management.md`
Progressive delivery (canary, blue-green)	`skills/gitops-workflows/references/progressive-delivery.md`
Rollback strategies and disaster recovery	`skills/gitops-workflows/references/rollback-strategies.md`
Best practices and patterns	`skills/gitops-workflows/references/best-practices.md`

Workflow Steps

1. Choose Repository Structure

Decision factors:

Team size and organization structure
Application coupling and dependencies
Access control requirements
Deployment frequency and independence

Options:

Monorepo: Single repo, unified platform teams, shared infrastructure
Multi-repo: Separate repos per app/team, independent release cycles
Environment branches: Git flow style, simple mental model

2. Select GitOps Tool

ArgoCD:

UI-focused with visual application management
App of Apps pattern for hierarchical deployments
ApplicationSets for multi-cluster deployments
Strong RBAC and project isolation

Flux:

CLI-first, GitOps Toolkit architecture
Native Kustomize and Helm support
Automated image updates
Lighter weight, cloud-native

3. Configure Secret Management

Never commit unencrypted secrets to Git

Options:

Sealed Secrets: Client-side encryption, simple workflow
External Secrets Operator: Sync from external secret stores (AWS, Vault, GCP)
SOPS: File-based encryption with age or cloud KMS

4. Implement Sync Policies

Non-production environments:

Automated sync with prune and selfHeal
Frequent reconciliation (1-5 minutes)
Fail fast with immediate feedback

Production environments:

Manual approval or gated automation
Health checks and wait conditions
Progressive delivery for high-risk changes
Sync windows for maintenance periods

5. Set Up Environment Promotion

Promotion strategies:

Git-based: Tag or branch promotion with Git operations
Kustomize overlays: Update image tags in environment-specific overlays
Automated updates: Flux ImageUpdateAutomation for semver policies

6. Configure Progressive Delivery

For high-risk changes:

ArgoCD Rollouts: Canary deployments with automated analysis
Flagger: Progressive delivery with metric-based promotion
Traffic shifting with Istio or other service mesh
Automated rollback on failed analysis

7. Establish Rollback Procedures

Git rollback:

git revert for specific commits
Tag-based rollback by updating targetRevision
Fast and declarative

Tool-specific:

ArgoCD: argocd app rollback with revision history
Flux: Suspend automation, manual rollback, resume

Common Mistakes

Committing unencrypted secrets - Always use secret management solution
No automated sync in non-prod - Slows development feedback
Automated sync in production without gates - High risk of breaking changes
Ignoring drift detection - Manual changes should be reconciled or alerted
No health checks - Sync succeeds but app is unhealthy
Missing dependency ordering - Apps deploy before infrastructure ready
No rollback testing - Discover issues during actual incidents
Inconsistent environments - Staging differs too much from production
No promotion testing - Manual errors during environment promotion
Weak RBAC - Too many permissions for GitOps service accounts

Resources

OpenGitOps: https://opengitops.dev/
ArgoCD Documentation: https://argo-cd.readthedocs.io/
Flux Documentation: https://fluxcd.io/docs/
ArgoCD Rollouts: https://argoproj.github.io/argo-rollouts/
Flagger: https://docs.flagger.app/
External Secrets Operator: https://external-secrets.io/
Sealed Secrets: https://github.com/bitnami-labs/sealed-secrets
SOPS: https://github.com/mozilla/sops

gitops-workflows