Argo CD

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Available in these plans	Free	Dev	Prod	Scale
Argo Integration

The Argo CD integration connects vCluster Platform to an Argo CD or Akuity instance using declarative connectors. A connector is a Kubernetes Secret stored in the Platform namespace that holds the credentials and endpoint for your Argo CD server. Once a connector exists, Platform automatically registers tenant clusters and control plane clusters with Argo CD and manages Argo CD Applications on their behalf.

This enables a fully GitOps-driven workflow with no manual cluster imports or Argo CD UI configuration:

• Connector-based cluster registration: Clusters register with Argo CD when you reference a connector by name. No manual import is needed.
• Akuity support: In addition to self-hosted Argo CD servers, the integration supports Akuity. Platform fetches and applies the Akuity agent manifest to each registered cluster automatically.
• Declarative application deployment: Define Argo CD Applications directly in your tenant cluster configuration. Platform creates and syncs them without requiring access to the Argo CD UI.
• Control plane cluster registration: Register control plane clusters with Argo CD directly, and deploy shared infrastructure applications to them alongside tenant cluster applications.

Key concepts

Connectors

A connector is a Kubernetes Secret in the Platform namespace labeled loft.sh/connector-type: argocd. Platform discovers connectors by this label and makes them available by name to any cluster in the platform. The connector holds the Argo CD server URL, authentication credentials, and — for Akuity — the organization and instance identifiers.

A single connector can be referenced by many clusters. You create it once and reference it by name from each cluster or tenant cluster configuration.

Cluster registration

When a tenant cluster or control plane cluster references a connector, Platform registers that cluster as a destination in Argo CD. The registration uses the Platform proxy as the API server endpoint and a scoped access key as the bearer token. This means:

• The cluster's Kubernetes API server does not need to be publicly reachable from Argo CD.
• Access is scoped per cluster. Argo CD authenticates using a Platform-issued access key, not a long-lived kubeconfig.
• When a tenant cluster is deleted or the integration is disabled, Platform deregisters it from Argo CD automatically.

For Akuity, registration also provisions an agent inside the cluster (see Connect to Akuity for details).

ArgoCDApplication and ArgoCDApplicationTemplate

The integration introduces two Platform-level resources:

• ArgoCDApplication: Represents an Argo CD application targeted at either the tenant cluster (vcluster) or its control plane cluster (host). Platform creates the corresponding Argo CD Application object and keeps it in sync
• ArgoCDApplicationTemplate: A reusable Argo CD ApplicationSpec with named parameters. Templates allow the same application definition to be referenced across many tenant clusters and control plane clusters without duplication.

These resources live in the Platform project namespace and are managed by Platform, not by Argo CD directly.

Standard Argo CD vs Akuity

Use the standard Argo CD integration if you run your own Argo CD server. Choose the Akuity integration if your Argo CD instance is managed by Akuity. Akuity connects to clusters through an in-cluster agent rather than direct API access.

	Standard Argo CD	Akuity
Argo CD hosting	Self-hosted	Akuity-managed
Cluster connectivity	Direct API access from Argo CD	Agent installed inside the cluster
Private clusters	Requires API server reachability	Fully supported (outbound agent connection only)
Agent management	Not applicable	Platform provisions and updates the agent automatically

Get started

• Connect to Argo CD — set up a standard Argo CD connector and register clusters
• Connect to Akuity — set up an Akuity connector with automatic agent provisioning
• Deploy applications — declare Argo CD Applications in your tenant cluster configuration

Legacy integration

If you are using the project-level Argo CD integration from an earlier version of vCluster Platform, see Legacy Argo CD integration. That integration is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.