ArgoCD Cheatsheet

Top commands.

Overview

Argo CD is the GitOps continuous-delivery tool for Kubernetes. Five primitives carry most operational use: git as the source of truth, auto-sync, drift detection, rollback via git revert, multi-cluster management from one instance. The discipline turns deployment into pull-request review and treats the cluster as a derived state of the repo.

• Git as source of truth. Cluster state matches the git repo by construction. Auditable and reproducible deployments.
• Auto-sync. Changes in git auto-apply to the cluster. Manual kubectl apply stops being the deployment path.
• Drift detection. Cluster drift from git is visible in the UI. Catches manual changes that bypass the GitOps flow.
• Rollback plus multi-cluster. Git revert rolls back the deployment; one Argo CD instance manages many clusters. Scales with fleet size.

The approach

Application per service, auto-sync with prune disabled by default, CLI-first investigation, App-of-Apps pattern for meta-management. Five idioms cover most operational use; memorising them moves the team from kubectl-driven deploys to confident GitOps.

• argocd app sync. Force a sync without waiting for the next reconcile interval. Fast iteration when needed.
• argocd app diff. Compare cluster state to git. Drift visibility on demand.
• argocd app history plus rollback. Deployment history per app; rollback to a prior revision in seconds. Incident-friendly recovery.
• App-of-Apps pattern. Meta-application manages child apps. Scales with service count without per-app boilerplate.

Why this compounds

Each application that adopts the patterns shortens the next deploy. Auto-sync removes the manual handoff; drift detection prevents the slow accumulation of cluster-only changes; git revert turns rollback into a five-second operation. By year two, every new service ships with Argo CD config on day one.

• Faster deployments. Auto-sync produces continuous delivery. Friction drops.
• Better audit trail. Git history is the deployment history. Compliance follows for free.
• Faster rollback. Git revert rolls back in seconds. Recovery time drops.
• Year-one investment, year-two habit. First year builds the patterns; by year two, every service ships with GitOps on day one.