Setting Up the Development Environment

Required Tools Overview

You will need to install the following tools with the specified minimum versions:

• Git (v2.0.0+)
• Go (version specified in go.mod - check with go version)
• Docker (v20.10.0+) Or Podman (v3.0.0+)
• Kind (v0.11.0+) Or Minikube (v1.23.0+) Or K3d (v5.7.3+)

Install Required Tools

Install Git

Obviously, you will need a git client for pulling source code and pushing back your changes.

https://github.com/git-guides/install-git

Install Go

You will need a Go SDK and related tools (such as GNU make) installed and working on your development environment.

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).
We will assume that your Go workspace is at ~/go.

Verify: run go version

Install Docker or Podman

Installation guide for docker

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

You will need a working Docker runtime environment, to be able to build and run images. Argo CD is using multi-stage builds.

Verify: run docker version

Installation guide for podman

https://podman.io/docs/installation

Install a Local K8s Cluster

You won't need a fully blown multi-master, multi-node cluster, but you will need something like K3S, K3d, Minikube, Kind or microk8s. You will also need a working Kubernetes client (kubectl) configuration in your development environment. The configuration must reside in ~/.kube/config.

Kind

Installation guide

You can use kind to run Kubernetes inside Docker. But pointing to any other development cluster works fine as well as long as Argo CD can reach it.

Start the Cluster

kind create cluster

Minikube

Installation guide

Start the Cluster

minikube start

Or, if you are using minikube with podman driver:

minikube start --driver=podman

K3d

Installation guide

Verify cluster installation

• Run kubectl version

Fork and Clone the Repository

1. Fork the Argo CD repository to your personal GitHub Account
2. Clone the forked repository:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/argo-cd.git

Please note that the local build process uses GOPATH and that path should not be used, unless the Argo CD repository was directly cloned in it.

3. While everyone has their own Git workflow, the author of this document recommends to create a remote called upstream in your local copy pointing to the original Argo CD repository. This way, you can easily keep your local branches up-to-date by merging in latest changes from the Argo CD repository, i.e. by doing a git pull upstream master in your locally checked out branch. To create the remote, run:
   shellCopy

   cd argo-cd
   git remote add upstream https://github.com/argoproj/argo-cd.git
   

Install Additional Required Development Tools

make install-go-tools-local
make install-codegen-tools-local

Install Latest Argo CD on Your Local Cluster

kubectl create namespace argocd &&
kubectl apply -n argocd --server-side --force-conflicts -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/master/manifests/install.yaml

Set kubectl config to avoid specifying the namespace in every kubectl command.

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