microshift-gitops and the missing WebUI: How to connect the ArgoCD CLI? How to install the WebUI?

[johanneskastl]

Dear maintainers,

I noticed that the microshift-gitops package contains only a subset of ArgoCD, i.e. the WebUI is missing. I understand that decision, as the target is machines that cannot waste resources.

However, I have to remarks on that:

1. It would be nice to add a hint to the documentation on how to install the WebUI, for those that would like to have it.

2. More important, I think it would be really helpful to document how to connect the argocd CLI to the cluster, as it normally (AFAIU) relies on the ArgoCD's web deployment to be exposed via ingress, loadbalancer or port-forward.

Kind Regards,
Johannes

[JungyuOO]

Hi Johannes,

I think the missing piece here is that microshift-gitops is running the lightweight/core Argo CD setup rather than the usual full Argo CD installation with argocd-server.

Because of that, you do not need to expose an argocd-server through a Route, Ingress, LoadBalancer, or port-forward just to use the Argo CD CLI.

Argo CD provides a Core mode specifically for this kind of installation.

For MicroShift, you can use:

oc project openshift-gitops
argocd login --core

After that, you can run normal Argo CD commands in Core mode, for example:

argocd app list --core
argocd app get <application> --core
argocd app sync <application> --core

In Core mode, the CLI works through your current Kubernetes context/kubeconfig and Kubernetes RBAC permissions rather than connecting to a permanently running argocd-server.

This also explains why you do not see an argocd-server deployment in the microshift-gitops installation.

If you only need the Web UI occasionally, Argo CD also provides a local dashboard command for Core mode:

argocd admin dashboard -n openshift-gitops

That starts a local Argo CD UI without requiring you to permanently deploy and expose argocd-server.

So I would separate the three use cases like this:

1. CLI access

   Use Core mode:

   oc project openshift-gitops
   argocd login --core

2. Occasional/local Web UI

   Start the local dashboard:

   argocd admin dashboard -n openshift-gitops

3. Permanent remotely accessible Web UI

   In that case you would need to add the server-side Argo CD components yourself and expose them appropriately. That would go beyond the intentionally lightweight microshift-gitops setup.

Red Hat also documents the MicroShift/Argo CD workflow using:

oc project openshift-gitops
argocd login --core

So I agree that adding this explicitly to the MicroShift GitOps documentation would make the package much less confusing.

Hope this helps.