ArgoCD & GitOps Installation and First Steps

Introduction

In modern DevOps practices, GitOps is the methodology of managing infrastructure and application deployments via Git repositories. ArgoCD is a Continuous Delivery (CD) tool for Kubernetes that implements GitOps principles.

In this guide you will:

• Install ArgoCD on a Kubernetes cluster.
• Synchronize manifests from a Git repository.
• Deploy your first application using GitOps workflow.

Prerequisites

• A running Kubernetes cluster (Minikube, Kind, or cloud provider).
• kubectl installed and connected.
• Example repository on GitHub or GitLab.
• (Optional) Helm installed.

Step 1 – Install ArgoCD

kubectl create namespace argocd
kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml
kubectl get pods -n argocd

Step 2 – Access ArgoCD UI and CLI

kubectl port-forward svc/argocd-server -n argocd 8080:443

👉 https://localhost:8080

Default username: admin
Password:

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

CLI install:

brew install argocd   # Mac
sudo apt-get install argocd-cli  # Linux

Step 3 – Deploy First Application

argocd login localhost:8080
argocd app create guestbook   --repo https://github.com/argoproj/argocd-example-apps.git   --path guestbook   --dest-server https://kubernetes.default.svc   --dest-namespace default
argocd app sync guestbook

Step 4 – GitOps Workflow

• Push: Commit and push manifest changes.
• ArgoCD: Polls or is triggered via webhook.
• Cluster: New versions are automatically applied.

Conclusion

You have successfully set up ArgoCD and deployed your first GitOps-based app.