Untangling ArgoCD and Helm

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0900

When getting ArgoCD to take over applications originally managed by Helm, the latter might still have those applications registered, meaning the helm list output would not reflect what the Kubernetes cluster actualy contains.

For example:

$ helm list -n cert-manager
NAME          NAMESPACE     REVISION	UPDATED                                	STATUS  	CHART                 APP VERSION
cert-manager  cert-manager  1       	2025-05-04 11:22:41.771600434 +0900 JST	deployed	cert-manager-v1.17.2  v1.17.2

While in fact

$ kubectl get applications -n argocd cert-manager -o jsonpath={.spec.source.targetRevision}
v1.19.4

De-registering an application from Helm can be achieved simply be removing the corresponding secret:

ArgoCD Helm chart with values from another repo

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

ArgoCD’s multi-source applications make it possible to pull a Helm chart from one repo (e.g. its official Helm repository) while sourcing the values.yaml from another repo/path, such as a private repo holding cluster-specific configuration.

This is done by declaring two entries under sources: one for the chart itself, and one ref source pointing at the repo/path containing the values file. The chart source then references that values file via the $<ref>/<path> syntax.

ArgoCD on Maxime Moreillon

Untangling ArgoCD and Helm

ArgoCD Helm chart with values from another repo