Theory

Updated

October 30, 2026

Theory: The Control Plane is Just Another Workload

Argo CD runs in the cluster (or a management cluster). Install flavor (full, core, Helm, Kustomize) is which components you accept.

Invariants

  1. A management cluster can drive many workload clusters.
  2. The CLI and UI are API clients; RBAC applies to both.
  3. kind/K3s on Linux is enough to learn the loop.
laptop kubectl  →  k3s  →  argo-cd namespace  →  in-cluster (or external) apps

What can break

  • Exposing the Argo UI to the internet with admin:admin.

How to read this chapter

Lab shape, k3s, install methods, UI/CLI/clusters.