Argo CD helps teams answer two deployment questions: what should be running, and does the cluster actually match it? It reads application configuration from Git, compares that configuration with Kubernetes, and can apply the changes needed to bring them together. Its interface shows differences and application health. Teams use it to make deployments reviewable and repeatable, with Git providing the record of intended changes.
Helm ownership matters
Argo CD can render a Helm chart, but Argo CD owns that application's lifecycle; this is not the same as a Helm CLI release that operators should independently upgrade. Its documentation identifies the argo-helm installation charts as community maintained. Keep the controller chart, application charts and application image versions separate in your inventory.
Before adoption
Define repository permissions, destination namespaces, project boundaries, secret delivery and how manual emergency changes return to Git. Test a failed synchronization and a rollback with the application's database behavior included. Removing a Git declaration can have destructive effects when pruning is enabled, so review that policy before enabling automated synchronization.
Choose this model when application-level visibility is valuable. Compare it with Flux's controller-based reconciliation in Argo CD vs Flux.
Sources & further reading
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