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¶

Install version 1.18 or newer (Verify version by running go version)
Get current value of GOPATH env: shell go env | grep path
Change directory into that path shell cd <path>

Clone the Argo CD repo¶

mkdir -p src/github.com/argoproj/ &&
cd src/github.com/argoproj &&
git clone https://github.com/argoproj/argo-cd.git

Install Docker¶

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

Install or Upgrade `kind` (Optional - Should work with any local cluster)¶

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

Start Your Local Cluster¶

kind create cluster

Install Argo CD¶

kubectl create namespace argocd &&
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.

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¶

cd argo-cd
make start-local ARGOCD_GPG_ENABLED=false

Navigate to to the ArgoCD UI on browser
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:

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:

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