ArgoCD GitOps Home Lab

Costlow

Deployability kubernetes ready

Status local lab

Validation make validate

Kubernetes ArgoCD GitOps Kind argocd

Use the guide first.

The full learning guide is on this page. Open the repository files only when a step asks you to inspect code, fork the project, or download raw assets.

Read safety guide Project files on GitHub

Project Guide

Student-friendly GitOps lab for running a simple Kubernetes app locally with Kind or Minikube and deploying it through ArgoCD.

What You Learn

• How GitOps differs from manual kubectl apply
• How ArgoCD watches Git and reconciles cluster state
• How to structure app manifests for dev/staging style promotion
• How sync, drift, rollback, and health checks work

Architecture

flowchart LR
  Student["Student edits Git repo"] --> AppManifest["k8s/ manifests"]
  AppManifest --> ArgoApp["ArgoCD Application"]
  ArgoApp --> ArgoCD["ArgoCD controller"]
  ArgoCD --> Cluster["Kind or Minikube cluster"]
  Cluster --> Workload["hello-gitops Deployment + Service"]

Prerequisites

• Docker
• Kind for the one-command workflow, or Minikube if you prefer manual setup
• kubectl
• ArgoCD CLI, optional but useful

One-Command Local Workflow

make validate
make up
make logs
make down

make up creates a local Kind cluster named gitops-lab, installs ArgoCD, and applies argocd/application.yaml.

Manual Quick Start

kind create cluster --name gitops-lab
kubectl create namespace argocd
kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml
kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=180s deployment/argocd-server -n argocd
kubectl apply -f argocd/application.yaml
kubectl get applications -n argocd

Update argocd/application.yaml so repoURL points to your fork before using it with a real GitHub repo.

Validation

make validate

This parses the Kubernetes and ArgoCD YAML locally, so it works before a cluster or ArgoCD CRD exists.

Troubleshooting

• no matches for kind "Application": install ArgoCD before applying the manifest to a cluster; make validate is only a local YAML check.
• repoURL sync fails: fork this repository and update argocd/application.yaml to your fork URL and branch.
• App namespace missing: confirm syncOptions still includes CreateNamespace=true.
• Kind cluster already exists: run make down, or use CLUSTER=my-gitops-lab make up.

Cleanup

make down

For Minikube users:

minikube delete

Stretch Goals

• Add a staging overlay.
• Add ArgoCD sync waves.
• Add image automation.
• Break the deployment and use ArgoCD rollback.