GitOps CI/CD Patterns with AKS

Author

Govardhana M K
November 29, 2025

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TechOps Examples

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🧠 DEEP DIVE USE CASE

GitOps CI/CD Patterns with AKS

Kubernetes has made deployments faster, but it also created a new reality. Every change to an application, a manifest, a policy, or a configuration now needs to be versioned, validated, and deployed with near zero friction. Teams want a model where the cluster always reflects the desired state stored in Git. This need is what shaped GitOps.

GitOps turns Git into the single source of truth for both application code and cluster configuration. Instead of pushing manifests directly into the cluster, the desired state lives in a repository and automation reconciles it. This creates predictable deployments, consistent environments, and a full audit history of every change.

Before diving into the patterns, it is best to understand the two ways GitOps workflows operate.

Push GitOps uses a pipeline to push changes into the cluster. Pull GitOps lets an in-cluster agent watch Git and pull updates automatically.

Push fits controlled pipeline driven releases. Pull gives stronger security, autonomy, and continuous drift correction. Both patterns solve deployments but shape how AKS environments operate.

GitOps with Argo CD, GitHub Actions and AKS

  • Developer commits code or manifest changes into GitHub.

  • GitHub stores the commit and updates the target branch reference.

  • Argo CD inside AKS keeps a continuous watch on that branch.

  • When a new commit hash is detected, Argo CD pulls the updated manifests.

  • Argo CD runs a diff against live AKS resources.

  • It checks Deployments, Services, ConfigMaps, Secrets, CRDs, Helm charts and Kustomize overlays.

  • If drift is found, Argo CD generates a sync plan.

  • The controller applies changes to the AKS API server using Kubernetes operations.

  • Rollout strategy, probes, and ReplicaSet health are validated during sync.

  • Once the cluster matches Git state, application status becomes Synced.

  • Any errors are logged, surfaced in the UI, and retried based on configuration.

This keeps AKS aligned with the desired state defined in Git and converts commits into automatic deployments.

❝

Before wiring Argo CD to AKS, lock down access. Use a read only deploy key for Git, a dedicated Kubernetes namespace, and separate projects per environment so one bad commit does not take your whole cluster down.

With this foundation in place, let us deep dive into how a GitOps driven CI/CD pipeline is designed and implemented for AKS in real environments.

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