Gitops Knowledge

Flux CD Knowledge Base

You are an expert on Flux CD, the GitOps toolkit for Kubernetes. Use this knowledge base to answer questions accurately, generate correct YAML manifests, and explain Flux concepts.

Rules:

• Always use the exact apiVersion/kind combinations from the CRD table below. Never invent API versions.
• Before generating YAML for any CRD, verify field names, types, enums and required fields against its field index in assets/schemas/. Each line is <dotted.path> <type> [(required)] [enum=a|b] [default=x] [pattern="..."] [min=N max=N] # description (arrays as path[], maps as <map[string]T>). Grep a path prefix to list a subtree (grep '^spec\.chart\.' assets/schemas/helmrelease-helm-v2.fields.txt) or a field name to find where it lives. Mutual-exclusivity and other CEL rules are enforced by flux schema validate.
• When a question requires detail beyond this file, load the relevant reference file from references/.
• When working inside a GitOps repository, inventory the layout with flux schema discover before placing files, and after writing manifests validate them with flux schema validate — fix and re-run until clean. Load references/flux-cli.md for the full CLI workflow, local rendering, and overlay debugging. If the tools aren't installed, skip validation and say so.
• Prefer Flux Operator (FluxInstance) for cluster setup. Do not reference flux bootstrap or legacy gotk-* files.

What is Flux

Flux is a set of Kubernetes controllers that implement GitOps: Git or OCI registries are the source of truth, and Flux continuously reconciles that desired state with the cluster. Sources poll at their interval and produce versioned artifacts; appliers (kustomize-controller, helm-controller) build and server-side apply new revisions, detect drift and self-heal; notification-controller reports status externally. Flux Operator manages the Flux installation declaratively through a FluxInstance custom resource (install, configuration, upgrades, lifecycle of all controllers); only one FluxInstance named flux can exist per cluster.

Sources (Git, OCI, Helm, Bucket) ─▶ Artifacts ─▶ Appliers (Kustomization, HelmRelease)
  ─▶ Managed Resources (Deployments, Services, ...) ─▶ Notifications (Provider + Alert)

ResourceSetInputProvider (GitHub PRs, OCI tags, in-cluster ExternalArtifacts, ...)
  ─▶ exports inputs ─▶ ResourceSet (template + input matrix; optional ordered `steps`)
  ─▶ generates per-input: Namespaces, Sources, Kustomizations, HelmReleases, RBAC, Jobs, ...

Two delivery models: Git-based (Flux watches Git and applies on commit) and Gitless (Git → CI pushes OCI artifacts → Flux pulls from the registry; artifacts are immutable, signed, and need no Git credentials on clusters).

Controllers, CRDs and References

The field index for each CRD is assets/schemas/<kind>-<group>-<version>.fields.txt in lowercase (e.g. helmrelease-helm-v2.fields.txt, fluxinstance-fluxcd-v1.fields.txt).

Ordering and Reactivity

Use dependsOn to control reconciliation order (CRDs before CRs, infrastructure before apps):

spec:
  dependsOn:
    - name: infra-controllers  # wait for this Kustomization to be Ready

ResourceSet dependsOn entries take apiVersion/kind/name/namespace of any resource, plus ready: true or a readyExpr CEL expression for custom readiness. For ordering within a single ResourceSet, use spec.steps (ordered named steps, each applied and health-checked before the next) instead of spec.resources — see references/resourcesets.md.

Controllers poll sources at their interval. To react immediately when a ConfigMap or Secret referenced via postBuild.substituteFrom or valuesFrom changes, label it reconcile.fluxcd.io/watch: Enabled.

Decision Trees

Which Source Type?

• Git repo with Kustomize overlays or plain YAML → GitRepository
• OCI artifact (container image with manifests) → OCIRepository
• Helm chart from OCI registry → OCIRepository with layerSelector for Helm media type
• Helm chart from HTTPS Helm repo → HelmRepository (default type)
• S3/GCS/MinIO bucket → Bucket
• Monorepo that needs splitting → ArtifactGenerator (creates ExternalArtifact per path)
• Monorepo where every apps/<app>/envs/<env> directory gets its own pipeline automatically → ArtifactGenerator pathPattern + ResourceSetInputProvider (type: ExternalArtifact) + ResourceSet templating a Kustomization per artifact — load references/monorepo-delivery.md
• Helm chart + env-specific values from Git → ArtifactGenerator (composes chart with values overlay)

Kustomization vs HelmRelease vs ResourceSet?

• Plain YAML or Kustomize overlays, one deployment → Kustomization
• Helm chart → HelmRelease
• Same template deployed for N inputs (tenants, components, environments) → ResourceSet (generates resources from an input matrix; Kustomizations apply a fixed set of manifests)
• Jobs that must run before/after a deployment (DB migration, smoke test, cache warmup) → ResourceSet with spec.steps — one object with a pre-deploy Job → deploy Kustomization → post-deploy Job sequence, instead of three dependsOn-chained Kustomizations. See references/resourcesets.md (Step-Based Reconciliation).
• Kustomization and HelmRelease can target remote clusters via kubeConfig.

How to Set Up GitOps from Scratch

Install Flux Operator (Helm chart or Terraform) → create a FluxInstance named flux in flux-system with .spec.sync pointing at the Git repo or OCI registry → organize manifests as Kustomize base+overlays → add Kustomization resources per component → add Provider + Alert.

Canonical YAML Patterns

1. GitOps Pipeline (GitRepository + Kustomization)

apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: GitRepository
metadata:
  name: my-app
  namespace: flux-system
spec:
  interval: 5m
  url: https://github.com/org/my-app.git
  ref:
    branch: main
  secretRef:
    name: git-credentials  # optional, for private repos
---
apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: Kustomization
metadata:
  name: my-app
  namespace: flux-system
spec:
  interval: 10m
  sourceRef:
    kind: GitRepository
    name: my-app
  path: ./deploy/production
  prune: true
  wait: true
  timeout: 5m

2. Helm from OCI Registry (Recommended)

apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: OCIRepository
metadata:
  name: cert-manager-chart
  namespace: cert-manager
spec:
  interval: 1h
  url: oci://quay.io/jetstack/charts/cert-manager
  layerSelector:
    mediaType: "application/vnd.cncf.helm.chart.content.v1.tar+gzip"
    operation: copy
  ref:
    semver: "1.x"
---
apiVersion: helm.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v2
kind: HelmRelease
metadata:
  name: cert-manager
  namespace: cert-manager
spec:
  interval: 1h
  chartRef:
    kind: OCIRepository
    name: cert-manager-chart
  install:
    strategy:
      name: RetryOnFailure
      retryInterval: 5m
  upgrade:
    strategy:
      name: RetryOnFailure
      retryInterval: 5m
  values:
    crds:
      enabled: true

For HTTPS Helm repositories use HelmRepository + HelmRelease with spec.chart.spec (chart, version: "3.x", sourceRef) instead of chartRef — see references/helmrelease.md.

3. FluxInstance with OCI Sync (Gitless GitOps)

apiVersion: fluxcd.controlplane.io/v1
kind: FluxInstance
metadata:
  name: flux
  namespace: flux-system
spec:
  distribution:
    version: "2.x"
    registry: "ghcr.io/fluxcd"
  components:
    - source-controller
    - source-watcher
    - kustomize-controller
    - helm-controller
    - notification-controller
  cluster:
    type: kubernetes
    size: medium
    multitenant: true
    tenantDefaultServiceAccount: flux
    networkPolicy: true
  sync:
    kind: OCIRepository
    url: "oci://ghcr.io/my-org/fleet-manifests"
    ref: "latest"
    path: "clusters/production"
    pullSecret: "registry-auth"

4. ResourceSet for Multi-Component Orchestration

A ResourceSet lists spec.inputs (e.g. tenant/environment pairs) and spec.resources templates that reference them with << inputs.tenant >>; each input renders its own Namespace, source and Kustomization/HelmRelease. For the full example and the multi-tenant pattern — per-tenant ServiceAccount + RoleBinding, serviceAccountName impersonation, dependsOn, and the reconcileEvery annotation — load references/resourcesets.md.

5. Image Automation

• Git-based — ImageRepository + ImagePolicy + ImageUpdateAutomation commit tag bumps to Git via $imagepolicy YAML markers; requires image-reflector-controller and image-automation-controller. Use when PR-based approval of bumps is required or Git must record every deployed version. Load references/image-automation.md.
• Gitless — ResourceSet + ResourceSetInputProvider (type: OCIArtifactTag) re-renders the downstream HelmRelease/Kustomization without touching Git: no bot credentials, no poll lag, no extra controllers. Recommended default for Flux Operator; best when the tag lives in Helm values or differs per cluster. Load references/gitless-image-automation.md.

6. Notifications

Provider + Alert (v1beta3) for outgoing notifications, Receiver (v1) for incoming webhooks. For Slack, GitHub commit status, webhook receivers, and all provider types, load references/notifications.md.

Common Mistakes

Wrong template delimiters:

• ResourceSet uses << inputs.field >> — NOT {{ .inputs.field }} or {{ inputs.field }}
• Go templates {{ }} are only used in ImageUpdateAutomation .spec.git.commit.messageTemplate

Mutual exclusivity:

• HelmRelease: spec.chart.spec and spec.chartRef are mutually exclusive
• FluxInstance: only one per cluster, must be named flux

HelmRelease strategy fields:

• Install/upgrade strategy is at spec.install.strategy.name and spec.upgrade.strategy.name
• Always use RetryOnFailure — it retries without rollback or uninstall, avoiding downtime
• Do not use RemediateOnFailure or spec.install.remediation / spec.upgrade.remediation

OCIRepository for Helm charts:

• Set layerSelector (mediaType: "application/vnd.cncf.helm.chart.content.v1.tar+gzip", operation: copy) to extract the chart, as in pattern 2.

Jobs managed by a ResourceSet:

• Job specs are immutable — annotate the Job with fluxcd.controlplane.io/force: enabled so a changed spec (new image tag) recreates it instead of failing the apply; add fluxcd.controlplane.io/recreateOnFailure: enabled only for idempotent Jobs.
• Never set ttlSecondsAfterFinished — the operator re-applies the TTL-deleted Job as drift and the migration runs again.
• Set spec.wait: true on a stepped ResourceSet, otherwise the final step is not health-checked.

Post-build substitution pitfalls:

• substituteFrom only resolves ConfigMaps/Secrets in the Kustomization's own namespace — copy cluster variables into tenant namespaces with fluxcd.controlplane.io/copyFrom (ResourceSet) rather than referencing flux-system from elsewhere.
• Kustomize spec.images[].name must match a plain image reference in the manifests (image: frontend); image rewriting runs at build time, before ${var} substitution.
• A substituted value must not start with a YAML indicator (>, |, *, &, [, {, %, @) — kustomize drops the surrounding quotes, so a semver range like >=1.0.0 yields invalid YAML. Use x, 1.x, ~1.2.0, ^1.2.0 or x || >=0.0.0-0.

Drift control — pick the right knob:

• Kustomization spec.ignore — exclude specific JSON-pointer fields from drift detection/apply (e.g. HPA replicas). Distinct from the kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/ssa: Ignore annotation, which skips a whole object.
• HelmRelease spec.driftDetection.ignore — the HelmRelease equivalent, only active when driftDetection.mode is warn/enabled.