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argocd-lovely-plugin

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A plugin to make Argo CD behave like we'd like.

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# argocd-lovely-plugin
An [Argo CD](https://argoproj.github.io/argo-cd/) plugin that behaves in a way we wish Argo CD behaved. This is only aimed at using Argo CD for GitOps - we do not use the UI for creating or modifying applications.

## Headline features
- Composite multiple things together to form a single app from multiple directories. For example - two or more Helm charts together as a single app. Or a Helm chart with a bit of plain yaml (a secret) to supplement it.
- Trivially allows Helm + Kustomize to work together, just works as you'd hope. Put a helm Chart.yaml+values.yaml in a folder, alongside a kustomization.yaml and you can kustomize your helm output or add more objects with kustomize
- When used with [application sets](https://argocd-applicationset.readthedocs.io/en/stable/) you can apply Kustomization and modify Helm's values.yaml per application to apply minor differences to your applications trivially.
- Chain several plugins together. argocd-lovely-plugin acts as a master plugin runner (acting as the only plugin to Argo CD), and then runs other Argo CD compatible plugins in a chain. This acts a bit like a unix pipe, so you can helm | kustomize | argocd-vault-replacer.
- Can also use [helmfiles](https://helmfile.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) and combine them with other things. These can either be a `helmfile.yaml`, `helmfile.yaml.gotmpl` or some yaml in `helmfile.d/`

## Why?
- Allows for better GitOps with one argo application per real application.
- Keep complex applications structured with subdirectories
- DRY (Don't repeat yourself) more
  - Allows Argo CD to Kustomize per application.
  - Combines particularly well with [application sets](https://argocd-applicationset.readthedocs.io/en/stable/) to allow broadly similar things to be partially modified by the application.

## Supports
- Helm
- Helmfile
- Kustomize
- Plain YAML

argocd-lovely-plugin does not support jsonnet as we do not use jsonnet, and haven't seen the need to use it. We don't know how it would best fit into the structure.

## Plain yaml

All the yaml in the directory and all subdirectories will be used as part of the application only if it is not a kustomize or helm chart. `.hidden` yaml files are not included.

## Supported Argo CD Versions
We aim to match the [Argo CD supported versions](https://argo-cd.readthedocs.io/en/stable/operator-manual/installation/#supported-versions) by testing against the Argo CD N and N -1 versions of Argo CD. You can see the current versions of Argo CD that we test against by looking in the [CI bootstrap directory](.github/workflows/assets/bootstrap) in this repo.

# Installing
We offer many pre-built container options. We only support the use of these containers, the binaries provided are for convenience:

- `argocd-lovely-plugin-cmp` to install as a sidecar plugin, which is versioned.
- [Variations](doc/variations.md) lists many other versions of the plugin, and explains versioning.

## Installing as an Argo CD Sidecar Plugin
We recommend you install as an Argo CD CMP Sidecar Plugin. [Argo CD's documentation](https://argo-cd.readthedocs.io/en/stable/operator-manual/config-management-plugins/#sidecar-plugin) has steps on how to achieve this, or you can see [our Kustomization example](examples/installation). You can also observe how we install Lovely for our CI tests in the [CI bootstrap directory](.github/workflows/assets/bootstrap) in this repo.

argocd-lovely-plugin has no discovery rules, so will not run by default. You must reference the plugin by name in your application spec. For example:

```yaml
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
...
spec:
  source:
    plugin:
      name: argocd-lovely-plugin-v1.0
...
```
For more information, please refer to the [Argo CD Documentation on discovery](https://argo-cd.readthedocs.io/en/stable/operator-manual/config-management-plugins/#write-discovery-rules-for-your-plugin).

## Environment variables

argocd-lovely-plugin is configured through environment variables and parameters. These can be set in both the sidecar and in the application itself.

If you are passing the configuration in as application environment variables in Argo CD 2.4 or higher you must not put the `ARGOCD_ENV_` prefix on them, as Argo CD does that for you.

Otherwise argocd-lovely-plugin will accept either form of all of the variables, with or without `ARGOCD_ENV_`, with the `ARGOCD_ENV_` version taking precedence if you set both of them.

argocd-lovely-plugin is designed for minimal configuration and to do the right thing. The following environment variables can be used to change some behaviour.

See [this](doc/parameter.md) for more details on how to configure it using parameters and a list of parameters.

## Kustomize

You can use the [helm chart inflation generator](https://kubectl.docs.kubernetes.io/references/kustomize/builtins/#_helmchartinflationgenerator_) of kustomize this way. See [the test](test/helm_only_in_kustomize) for an example of this. If you do this none of the helm environment variables will have any effect as you can set those in your kustomization.yaml instead. There is no way to merge/patch your values.yaml with lovely only (you should run a preprocessor for that). Despite this, that is the recommended way to use helm and kustomize together. `LOVELY_HELM_NAME` will also have no effect here.

## ARGOCD_ENV_ support

All argocd-lovely-plugin environment variables may be prefixed with `ARGOCD_ENV_` for Argo CD 2.4 compatibility. If you are deranged and define both the `ARGOCD_ENV_` version will be used. When you put an environment variable into an application in 2.4 or later it will automatically get prefixed with `ARGOCD_ENV_` so you must use the non prefixed variable name there.

## What can I do with it?
Have a look at the [examples directory](examples/README.md) for a list of examples of how you can use this to make nice git repos for your applications. This also refers to the [test directory](test/README.md), which contains a number of examples that also serve as CI/CD tests for this plugin.

## What doesn't it do?
This is not a templating tool, there are plenty of choices out there to that stuff. It just brings together external tools.

There is not [yet](https://github.com/crumbhole/argocd-lovely-plugin/issues/36) support for accessing private helm repos.

# How does it work?
For more details on what lovely does read [this](doc/how.md)

# Debugging lovely's behaviour locally

You can download `argocd-lovely-plugin` binary and run it in an application directory. Errors will go to stderr, and the rendered yaml will appear on stdout.
- You will need helm, helmfile and kustomize on your path if you use those. You will also need git and bash.
- You should set up the expected environment variables. Remember `ARGOCD_APP_NAME` needs to be set for helm chart rendering, or can be overridden with `LOVELY_HELM_NAME`. One or other must be set.
- Understand [the docs](doc/how.md), especially the 'clean copy' section

# Videos
If you prefer to watch videos of things rather than read words, we have compiled some demos.

- [Using Argo CD to Kustomize a Helm chart, and deploy additional manifests](https://youtu.be/OMae_8DHELA)
- [A bit about the general design of lovely plugin](https://youtu.be/5BLHwWlgd1k)
- [Promoted at ArgoCon EU 2023 by Michael Crenshaw from Intuit/Argo CD](https://youtu.be/uYKjSlarlN4?t=1175)

argocd-lovely-plugin

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