ArgoCD Cheat Sheet 2026: Commands and Workflows

A quick reference for ArgoCD — GitOps continuous delivery for Kubernetes. Bookmark this page.

CLI Setup

# Install ArgoCD CLI
curl -sSL -o argocd https://github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/releases/latest/download/argocd-linux-amd64
chmod +x argocd && sudo mv argocd /usr/local/bin/

# Login
argocd login argocd.example.com
argocd login argocd.example.com --grpc-web  # If gRPC blocked

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

Application Management

# Create an application
argocd app create my-app \
  --repo https://github.com/org/repo.git \
  --path k8s/overlays/production \
  --dest-server https://kubernetes.default.svc \
  --dest-namespace production \
  --sync-policy automated \
  --auto-prune \
  --self-heal

# List applications
argocd app list
argocd app list -o wide

# Get application details
argocd app get my-app
argocd app get my-app --hard-refresh  # Force manifest refresh

# Sync (deploy)
argocd app sync my-app
argocd app sync my-app --prune       # Remove deleted resources
argocd app sync my-app --force       # Force sync
argocd app sync my-app --dry-run     # Preview changes

# Delete application
argocd app delete my-app
argocd app delete my-app --cascade   # Delete app resources too

Application YAML

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: my-app
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://github.com/org/repo.git
    targetRevision: main
    path: k8s/overlays/production
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: production
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      prune: true
      selfHeal: true
    syncOptions:
      - CreateNamespace=true
      - ApplyOutOfSyncOnly=true
    retry:
      limit: 5
      backoff:
        duration: 5s
        maxDuration: 3m

Projects

# List projects
argocd proj list

# Create project with restrictions
argocd proj create team-a \
  --src https://github.com/org/* \
  --dest https://kubernetes.default.svc,team-a-* \
  --allow-cluster-resource Namespace

# Add allowed namespace
argocd proj add-destination team-a https://kubernetes.default.svc team-a-staging

Cluster and Repo Management

# Add external cluster
argocd cluster add my-cluster-context

# List clusters
argocd cluster list

# Add private repo
argocd repo add https://github.com/org/private-repo.git --username git --password $TOKEN

# Add Helm repo
argocd repo add https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami --type helm --name bitnami

Troubleshooting

# View application logs
argocd app logs my-app

# View sync history
argocd app history my-app

# View resource tree
argocd app resources my-app

# Diff between desired and live state
argocd app diff my-app

# Refresh application (re-read Git)
argocd app get my-app --refresh
argocd app get my-app --hard-refresh  # Clear cache

Tips and Tricks

• Use ApplicationSets for multi-cluster/multi-env deployments
• Enable selfHeal: true to auto-correct manual changes
• Use ignoreDifferences for fields managed by controllers
• Set resource hooks for pre/post-sync jobs
• Use argocd app wait my-app in CI/CD to wait for healthy state

Related Resources

• Helm Cheat Sheet
• Kustomize Cheat Sheet
• Flux Cheat Sheet