argo-cd/docs/user-guide/source-hydrator.md

# Source Hydrator

**Current feature state**: Alpha

Tools like Helm and Kustomize allow users to express their Kubernetes manifests in a more concise and reusable way
(keeping it DRY - Don't Repeat Yourself). However, these tools can obscure the actual Kubernetes manifests that are
applied to the cluster.

The "rendered manifest pattern" is a way to push the hydrated manifests to git before syncing them to the cluster. This
allows users to see the actual Kubernetes manifests that are applied to the cluster.

The source hydrator is a feature of Argo CD that allows users to push the hydrated manifests to git before syncing them
to the cluster.

## Enabling the Source Hydrator

The source hydrator is disabled by default.

To enable the source hydrator, you need to enable the "commit server" component and set the `hydrator.enabled` field in
argocd-cmd-params-cm ConfigMap to `"true"`.

```yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: argocd-cmd-params-cm
  namespace: argocd
data:
  hydrator.enabled: "true"
```

!!! important
    After updating the ConfigMap, you must restart the Argo CD controller and API server for the changes to take effect.

If you are using one of the `*-install.yaml` manifests to install Argo CD, you can use the 
`*-install-with-hydrator.yaml` version of that file instead.

For example,

```
Without hydrator: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml
With hydrator:    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install-with-hydrator.yaml
```

!!! important
    The `*-with-hydrator-install.yaml` manifests will eventually be removed when the source hydrator is either enabled
    by default or removed. The upgrade guide will note if the `install-with-hydrator.yaml` manifests are no longer
    available.

## Using the Source Hydrator

To use the source hydrator, you must first install a push secret. This example uses a GitHub App for authentication, but
you can use [any authentication method that Argo CD supports for repository access](../operator-manual/declarative-setup.md#repositories).

```yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: my-push-secret
  namespace: argocd
  labels:
    argocd.argoproj.io/secret-type: repository-write
type: Opaque
stringData:
  url: "https://github.com"
  type: "git"
  githubAppID: "<your app ID here>"
  githubAppInstallationID: "<your installation ID here>"
  githubAppPrivateKey: |
    <your private key here>    
```

The label `argocd.argoproj.io/secret-type: repository-write` causes this Secret to be used for pushing manifests to git
instead of pulling from git.

Once your push secret is installed, set the `spec.sourceHydrator` field of the Application. For example:

```yaml
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: my-app
spec:
  sourceHydrator:
    drySource:
      repoURL: https://github.com/argoproj/argocd-example-apps
      path: helm-guestbook
      targetRevision: HEAD
    syncSource:
      targetBranch: environments/dev
      path: helm-guestbook
```

In this example, the hydrated manifests will be pushed to the `environments/dev` branch of the `argocd-example-apps`
repository.

!!! important "Project-Scoped Repositories"

    Repository Secrets may contain a `project` field, making the secret only usable by Applications in that project.
    The source hydrator only supports project-scoped repositories if all Applications writing to the same repository and
    branch are in the same project. If Applications in different projects write to the same repository and branch, the
    source hydrator will not be able to use a project-scoped repository secret and will require a global repository 
    secret. This behavior may change in the future.

If there are multiple repository-write Secrets available for a repo, the source hydrator will non-deterministically
select one of the matching Secrets and log a warning saying "Found multiple credentials for repoURL".

## Pushing to a "Staging" Branch

The source hydrator can be used to push hydrated manifests to a "staging" branch instead of the `syncSource` branch.
This provides a way to prevent the hydrated manifests from being applied to the cluster until some prerequisite
conditions are met (in effect providing a way to handle environment promotion via Pull Requests).

To use the source hydrator to push to a "staging" branch, set the `spec.sourceHydrator.hydrateTo` field of the
Application. For example:

```yaml
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: my-app
spec:
  project: my-project
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: default
  sourceHydrator:
    drySource:
      repoURL: https://github.com/argoproj/argocd-example-apps
      path: helm-guestbook
      targetRevision: HEAD
    syncSource:
      targetBranch: environments/dev
      path: helm-guestbook
    hydrateTo:
      targetBranch: environments/dev-next
```

In this example, the hydrated manifests will be pushed to the `environments/dev-next` branch, and Argo CD will not sync
the changes until something moves them to the `environments/dev` branch.

You could use a CI action to move the hydrated manifests from the `hydrateTo` branch to the `syncSource` branch. To
introduce a gating mechanism, you could require a Pull Request to be opened to merge the changes from the `hydrateTo`
branch to the `syncSource` branch.

Argo CD will only push changes to the `hydrateTo` branch, it will not create a PR or otherwise facilitate moving those 
changes to the `syncSource` branch. You will need to use your own tooling to move the changes from the `hydrateTo` 
branch to the `syncSource` branch.

## Commit Tracing

It's common for CI or other tooling to push DRY manifest changes after a code change. It's important for users to be
able to trace the hydrated commits back to the original code change that caused the hydration.

Source Hydrator makes use of some custom git commit trailers to facilitate this tracing. A CI job that builds an image
and pushes an image bump to DRY manifests can use the following commit trailers to link the hydrated commit to the
code commit.

```shell
git commit -m "Bump image to v1.2.3" \
  # Must be an RFC 5322 name
  --trailer "Argocd-reference-commit-author: Author Name <author@example.com>" \
  # Must be a valid email address per RFC 5322
  --trailer "Argocd-reference-commit-author-email: author@example.com" \
  # Must be a hex string 5-40 characters long
  --trailer "Argocd-reference-commit-sha: <code-commit-sha>" \
  --trailer "Argocd-reference-commit-subject: Commit message of the code commit" \
   # The body must be a valid JSON string, including opening and closing quotes
  --trailer 'Argocd-reference-commit-body: "Commit message of the code commit\n\nSigned-off-by: Author Name <author@example.com>"' \
   # The repo URL must be a valid URL
  --trailer "Argocd-reference-commit-repourl: https://git.example.com/owner/repo" \
  # The date must by in ISO 8601 format
  --trailer "Argocd-reference-commit-date: 2025-06-09T13:50:18-04:00" 
```

!!!note Newlines are not allowed
    The commit trailers must not contain newlines. The 

So the full CI script might look something like this:

```shell
# Clone code repo
git clone https://git.example.com/owner/repo.git
cd repo

# Build the image and get the new image tag
# <cusom build logic here>

# Get the commit information
author=$(git show -s --format="%an <%ae>")
sha=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
subject=$(git show -s --format='%s')
body=$(git show -s --format='%b')
jsonbody=$(jq -n --arg body "$body" '$body')
repourl=$(git remote get-url origin)
date=$(git show -s --format='%aI')

# Clone the dry source repo
git clone https://git.example.com/owner/deployment-repo.git
cd deployment-repo

# Bump the image in the dry manifests
# <custom bump logic here, e.g. `kustomize edit`>

# Commit the changes with the commit trailers
git commit -m "Bump image to v1.2.3" \
  --trailer "Argocd-reference-commit-author: $author" \
  --trailer "Argocd-reference-commit-sha: $sha" \
  --trailer "Argocd-reference-commit-subject: $subject" \
  --trailer "Argocd-reference-commit-body: $jsonbody" \
  --trailer "Argocd-reference-commit-repourl: $repourl" \
  --trailer "Argocd-reference-commit-date: $date"
```

The commit metadata will appear in the hydrated commit's root hydrator.metadata file:

```json
{
  "references": [
    {
      "commit": {
        "author": {
          "name": "Author Name",
          "email": "author@example.com"
        },
        "sha": "b82add298aa045d3672880802d5305c5a8aaa46e",
        "subject": "chore: make a change",
        "body": "make a change\n\nSigned-off-by: Author Name <author@example.com>",
        "repoURL": "https://git.example.com/owner/repo",
        "date": "2025-06-09T13:50:18-04:00"
      }
    }
  ]
}
```

Although `references` is an array, the source hydrator currently only supports a single related commit. If a trailer is
specified more than once, the last one will be used.

All trailers are optional. If a trailer is not specified, the corresponding field in the metadata will be omitted.

## Limitations

### Signature Verification

The source hydrator **does not currently support signature verification of the DRY sources it hydrates/commits**. It
also does not sign the commits it pushes to git, so if signature verification is enabled, the commits will fail
verification when Argo CD attempts to sync the hydrated manifests.

### Project-Scoped Push Secrets

If all the Applications for a given destination repo/branch are under the same project, then the hydrator will use any
available project-scoped push secrets. If two Applications for a given repo/branch are in different projects, then the
hydrator will not be able to use a project-scoped push secret and will require a global push secret.

### Credential Templates

Credential templates allow a single credential to be used for multiple repositories. The source hydrator does not 
currently support credential templates. You will need a separate credential for each repository.

### `manifest-generate-paths` Annotation Support

The source hydrator does not currently support the [manifest-generate-paths annotation](../operator-manual/high_availability.md#manifest-paths-annotation) 
for work avoidance on hydration of dry commits. In other words, the source hydrator is not able to skip hydration of dry 
commits that have not changed relevant files.

The application controller _does_ honor the `manifest-generate-paths` annotation when syncing the hydrated manifests.
So if your application hydrates to the `foo` directory, and the `manifest-generate-paths` annotation is set to `foo`, 
then the application controller will not re-hydrate the manifests after a commit that only affects files in the `bar`
directory.

## Prerequisites

### Handle Secrets on the Destination Cluster

Do not use the source hydrator with any tool that injects secrets into your manifests as part of the hydration process
(for example, Helm with SOPS or the Argo CD Vault Plugin). These secrets would be committed to git. Instead, use a
secrets operator that populates the secret values on the destination cluster.

## Best Practices

### Make Hydration Deterministic

The source hydrator should be deterministic. For a given dry source commit, the hydrator should always produce the same
hydrated manifests. This means that the hydrator should not rely on external state or configuration that is not stored
in git.

Examples of non-deterministic hydration:

* A Helm chart using unpinned dependencies
* A Helm chart is using a non-deterministic template function such as `randAlphaNum` or `lookup`
* [Config Management Plugins](../operator-manual/config-management-plugins.md) which retrieve non-git state, such as secrets
* Kustomize manifests referencing unpinned remote bases

### Enable Branch Protection

Argo CD should be the only thing pushing hydrated manifests to the hydrated branches. To prevent other tools or users
from pushing to the hydrated branches, enable branch protection in your SCM.

It is best practice to prefix the hydrated branches with a common prefix, such as `environments/`. This makes it easier
to configure branch protection rules on the destination repository.