GitOps Patterns¶

Declarative infrastructure management using Git as the source of truth.

Core Principles¶

Declarative - Describe desired state, not steps to achieve it
Versioned - All changes tracked in Git history
Automated - Reconciliation without manual intervention
Observable - Drift detection and alerting

Pattern: Repository Structure¶

fleet-repo/
├── apps/              # Application manifests
│   ├── base/         # Base configurations
│   └── overlays/     # Environment-specific
├── infrastructure/    # Platform components
└── clusters/          # Cluster configurations
    ├── dev/
    ├── staging/
    └── prod/

Pattern: Progressive Delivery¶

graph LR
    DEV[Dev] -->|Promote| STG[Staging]
    STG -->|Promote| PROD[Production]

Promotion Strategy

Use separate branches or directories per environment, promoting via PRs.

Pattern: Secrets Management¶

Approach	Pros	Cons
SOPS	Git-native, auditable	Key management complexity
Sealed Secrets	K8s-native	Cluster-specific
External Secrets	Cloud-native	External dependency

Anti-Patterns¶

Avoid These

Manual kubectl applies to production
Secrets in plain text
Skipping staging for "urgent" fixes