FluxCD | DevOps QuickRef | DevOps QuickRef

Flux CLI commands for bootstrap, reconciliation, GitRepository, Kustomization and HelmRelease.

Flux reconciles a cluster against Git the same way ArgoCD does, but as a set of Kubernetes-native CRDs and controllers rather than a separate server + UI — everything is a Kubernetes object you can kubectl get.

Bootstrap

flux check --pre

Verifies the cluster meets Flux's prerequisites before installing anything.

flux bootstrap github --owner=my-org --repository=fleet-infra --branch=main --path=clusters/production

Installs Flux's controllers and commits their manifests to a Git repo, wiring the cluster to reconcile from that path going forward.

flux check

Verifies all Flux controllers are installed and healthy after bootstrap.

Sources

flux get sources git

Lists GitRepository sources and their last successful fetch.

flux create source git my-app --url=https://github.com/org/my-app --branch=main

Registers a Git repository as a source Flux will poll for changes.

flux get sources helm

Lists HelmRepository sources.

Kustomization

apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: Kustomization
metadata:
  name: my-app
  namespace: flux-system
spec:
  interval: 5m
  path: ./k8s
  prune: true
  sourceRef:
    kind: GitRepository
    name: my-app

flux get kustomizations

Lists Kustomization resources and their sync/ready status.

flux reconcile kustomization my-app

Forces an immediate reconcile instead of waiting for the next poll interval — the fastest way to pick up a Git change right now.

HelmRelease

apiVersion: helm.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v2
kind: HelmRelease
metadata:
  name: my-app
  namespace: default
spec:
  interval: 10m
  chart:
    spec:
      chart: my-app
      sourceRef:
        kind: HelmRepository
        name: my-repo
  values:
    replicaCount: 3

flux get helmreleases

Lists HelmRelease resources and their status.

flux reconcile helmrelease my-app

Forces an immediate Helm reconcile.

Suspending & Resuming

flux suspend kustomization my-app

Pauses reconciliation — useful while debugging, so Flux doesn't fight manual changes mid-investigation.

flux resume kustomization my-app

Resumes reconciliation after a suspend.

Logs

flux logs --follow

Streams logs across all Flux controllers, tagged by which controller and object emitted each line.

flux logs --level=error

Filters to error-level log lines only, across all controllers.

Flux vs. ArgoCD

Both implement the same GitOps pull model. Flux is a set of Kubernetes CRDs/controllers with no separate UI by default (kubectl is the primary interface, plus an optional dashboard). ArgoCD ships a server and web UI as core to the product, with the CLI as an alternative interface. Flux tends to compose more granularly (separate controllers for sources, Kustomize, Helm, notifications); ArgoCD centralizes more in one application model.