Contributors Quick-Start

This guide is a starting point for first-time contributors running Argo CD locally for the first time.

It skips advanced topics such as codegen, which are covered in the running locally guide and the toolchain guide.

Getting Started

Install Go

https://go.dev/doc/install/

Install Go with a version equal to or greater than the version listed in go.mod (verify go version with go version).

Clone the Argo CD repo

  1. mkdir -p $GOPATH/src/github.com/argoproj/ &&
  2. cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/argoproj &&
  3. git clone https://github.com/argoproj/argo-cd.git

Install Docker

https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/

Install or Upgrade a Tool for Running Local Clusters (e.g. kind or minikube)

Installation guide for kind:

https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/docs/user/quick-start/

Installation guide for minikube:

https://minikube.sigs.k8s.io/docs/start/

Start Your Local Cluster

For example, if you are using kind:

  1. kind create cluster

Or, if you are using minikube:

  1. minikube start

Install Argo CD

  1. kubectl create namespace argocd &&
  2. kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/master/manifests/install.yaml

Set kubectl config to avoid specifying the namespace in every kubectl command.
All following commands in this guide assume the namespace is already set.

  1. kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=argocd

Install yarn

https://classic.yarnpkg.com/lang/en/docs/install/

Install goreman

https://github.com/mattn/goreman#getting-started

Run Argo CD

  1. cd argo-cd
  2. make start-local ARGOCD_GPG_ENABLED=false
  • Navigate to localhost:4000 in your browser to load the Argo CD UI
  • It may take a few minutes for the UI to be responsive

Note

If the UI is not working, check the logs from make start-local. The logs are DEBUG level by default. If the logs are too noisy to find the problem, try editing log levels for the commands in the Procfile in the root of the Argo CD repo.

Making Changes

UI Changes

Modifying the User-Interface (by editing .tsx or .scss files) auto-reloads the changes on port 4000.

Backend Changes

Modifying the API server, repo server, or a controller requires restarting the current make start-local session to reflect the changes.

CLI Changes

Modifying the CLI requires restarting the current make start-local session to reflect the changes.

To test most CLI commands, you will need to log in.

First, get the auto-generated secret:

  1. kubectl -n argocd get secret argocd-initial-admin-secret -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 -d; echo

Then log in using that password and username admin:

  1. dist/argocd login localhost:8080

Congrats on making it to the end of this runbook! 🚀

For more on Argo CD, find us in Slack - https://slack.cncf.io/ #argo-contributors