How does ArgoCD integrate with Helm and Kustomize?
CI/CD & GitOps · Intermediate level
Answer
Argo CD can render plain YAML, Kustomize overlays, Helm charts, Jsonnet, and plugin-based sources. For Helm it can render a chart with values; for Kustomize it can build overlays. Argo CD then compares the rendered manifests to live cluster state.
Technical explanation
Argo CD renders the source first, then compares the rendered result to live objects.
Keep environment-specific differences in values or overlays rather than forking templates unnecessarily.
GitOps separates build from deploy: CI produces immutable artifacts, while the GitOps controller reconciles declarative desired state into the cluster.
Argo CD status has two dimensions: sync status indicates desired versus live state; health status indicates whether live resources appear operationally healthy.
Use projects, RBAC, repository allowlists, destination restrictions, sync windows, and admission policies to constrain what an Application may deploy.
Prefer reviewed Git changes over direct kubectl changes; direct changes create drift and bypass audit, policy, and promotion workflow.
Hands-on example
1. Model the desired state for: How does ArgoCD integrate with Helm and Kustomize in a GitOps repository, for example environments/staging/apps/payments and environments/prod/apps/payments.
2. Create an Argo CD Application that points to repoURL, targetRevision, path or chart, destination server, namespace, and project; render with Helm/Kustomize before merging.
3. Open a pull request that changes only the desired version or values, require review and policy checks, then merge to let Argo CD detect OutOfSync state.
4. Run argocd app get payments and argocd app diff payments, then sync manually or let automated sync reconcile; verify sync status, health status, events, and Kubernetes rollout status.
5. Test rollback by reverting the Git commit or promoting the previous artifact digest, then watch Argo CD reconcile the cluster back to the known-good desired state.
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