GitOps
Operational practice using Git as single source of truth for infrastructure and configuration, with automatic reconciliation between desired and actual state.
What it is
GitOps is a practice where Git is the single source of truth for desired infrastructure and application state. An operator (ArgoCD, Flux) monitors the repository and automatically reconciles actual state with what's declared in Git.
Principles
- Declarative: desired state is described, not steps
- Versioned: everything in Git with complete history
- Automatic: Git changes are applied automatically
- Reconciliation: operator continuously corrects drift
Flow
Dev → PR → Review → Merge → Git repo
↓
GitOps operator detects change
↓
Applies changes to cluster
↓
Continuously reconciles state
Tools
| Tool | Focus |
|---|---|
| ArgoCD | Rich UI, multi-cluster |
| Flux | Lightweight, CNCF |
| Crossplane | Cloud infrastructure via K8s |
Why it matters
GitOps turns Git into the source of truth for infrastructure and applications. Every change goes through a PR, is reviewed, and is applied automatically. This provides complete auditing, instant rollback, and a workflow developers already know.
References
- OpenGitOps — Principles and standard.
- ArgoCD — Official documentation.
- Flux CD — CNCF, 2024. Kubernetes-native GitOps tool.
Related content
- CI/CD
Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Deployment — practices that automate code integration, testing, and delivery to production. Foundation of modern software engineering.
- Infrastructure as Code
Practice of defining and managing infrastructure through versioned configuration files instead of manual processes. Foundation of modern operations automation.
- Kubernetes
Container orchestration platform that automates deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications at scale, becoming the de facto standard for cloud native.
- Helm
Package manager for Kubernetes that simplifies installation and management of complex applications through reusable and configurable charts.