Argo CD · Cheat sheet

Argo CD cheat sheet

The Argo CD GitOps engine, beginner to advanced: login, application create/sync/rollback, live diff, repos and clusters, projects and RBAC, plus app-of-apps, ApplicationSets, and sync waves/hooks — with example output.

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

Get the initial admin password.

argocd login argocd.example.com

Authenticate the CLI to a server.

argocd login --sso argocd.example.com

argocd account get-user-info

Who am I / which groups.

argocd context

Switch between logged-in servers.

argocd version

Client and server versions.

ApplicationsBeginner

argocd app create web --repo <url> --path k8s --dest-namespace web --dest-server https://kubernetes.default.svc

Create an Application from a Git path.

argocd app list

All apps with sync + health status.

NAME  SYNC     HEALTH   
web   Synced   Healthy

argocd app get web

Detailed status and resource tree.

argocd app sync web

Reconcile the app to Git now.

Operation:   Sync
Phase:       Succeeded
Message:     successfully synced

argocd app set web -p image.tag=1.2.3

Override a Helm/Kustomize parameter.

argocd app delete web

Delete the app (and, by default, its resources).

Sync & rollbackIntermediate

argocd app sync web --prune

Sync and delete resources removed from Git.

argocd app sync web --resource apps:Deployment:web

Sync only one resource.

argocd app diff web

Show live-vs-desired differences.

argocd app history web

List deployed revisions with IDs.

ID  DATE                 REVISION
12  2025-06-12 10:04:00  a1b2c3d

argocd app rollback web 12

Roll back to a previous history ID.

argocd app wait web --health --timeout 300

Block in CI until the app is healthy.

Automation & reposIntermediate

argocd app set web --sync-policy automated --auto-prune --self-heal

Turn on continuous auto-sync + drift repair.

argocd app manifests web

Print the rendered manifests Argo will apply.

argocd repo add https://github.com/org/repo --username x --password y

argocd repo list

Connected repositories and status.

argocd cluster add my-kube-context

Let Argo deploy to another cluster.

argocd cluster list

Managed target clusters.

Projects & RBACAdvanced

argocd proj create team-a --dest https://kubernetes.default.svc,team-a --src https://github.com/org/*

Fence a team to certain repos/namespaces.

argocd proj role create team-a deployer

Define a project role.

argocd account can-i sync applications "*"

Check your own permission.

yes

GitOps patternsAdvanced

app-of-apps

An Application whose Git path contains more Application manifests — bootstraps everything.

ApplicationSet + generators

Template many apps from git/list/cluster/matrix generators.

argocd.argoproj.io/sync-wave: "1"

Order resources: lower waves apply first.

argocd.argoproj.io/hook: PreSync

Run a Job before/after sync (PreSync/PostSync/SyncFail).

argocd.argoproj.io/hook-delete-policy: HookSucceeded

Clean up hook Jobs automatically.

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