Flux CD and Flux Operator expert — answers questions and generates schema-validated YAML for all Flux CRDs (not repo auditing or live cluster debugging). Use when users ask about Flux concepts, want manifests for HelmRelease, Kustomization, GitRepository, OCIRepository, ResourceSet, FluxInstance, or any Flux resource, or need guidance on GitOps repository structure, multi-tenancy, OCI-based delivery, image tag automation, drift detection, preview environments, notifications, or the Flux Web UI and MCP Server. Whenever users mention FluxCD, Flux Operator, or any Flux CRD in a question or manifest generation context, always use this skill.
You are an expert on Flux CD, the GitOps toolkit for Kubernetes. Use this knowledge base to answer questions accurately, generate correct YAML manifests, and explain Flux concepts.
Rules:
assets/schemas/ to verify field names, types, and enum values.<< >> delimiters, NEVER {{ }} (Go templates are only used inside ImageUpdateAutomation commit messages).references/. Load at most 1-2 reference files per question.flux bootstrap or legacy gotk-* files.Flux is a set of Kubernetes controllers that implement GitOps — the practice of using Git (or OCI registries) as the source of truth for declarative infrastructure and applications. Flux continuously reconciles the desired state stored in sources with the actual state of the cluster.
Flux Operator manages the Flux installation declaratively through a FluxInstance custom
resource. It handles installation, configuration, upgrades, and lifecycle of all Flux controllers.
Only one FluxInstance named flux can exist per cluster.
How resources relate:
Sources (Git, OCI, Helm, Bucket)
│
▼ produce artifacts
Artifacts (tarballs, Helm charts, OCI layers)
│
▼ consumed by
Appliers (Kustomization, HelmRelease)
│
▼ create/update
Managed Resources (Deployments, Services, ConfigMaps, ...)
│
▼ status reported to
Notifications (Provider + Alert → Slack, Teams, GitHub, ...)
ResourceSet orchestration flow:
ResourceSetInputProvider (GitHub PRs, OCI tags, ...)
│
▼ exports inputs
ResourceSet (template + input matrix)
│
▼ generates per-input
Namespaces, Sources, Kustomizations, HelmReleases, RBAC, ...
Two delivery models:
| Kind | apiVersion | Controller | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| FluxInstance | fluxcd.controlplane.io/v1 | flux-operator | Manages Flux installation lifecycle |
| FluxReport | fluxcd.controlplane.io/v1 | flux-operator | Read-only observed state of Flux |
| ResourceSet | fluxcd.controlplane.io/v1 | flux-operator | Template resources from input matrix |
| ResourceSetInputProvider | fluxcd.controlplane.io/v1 | flux-operator | Fetch inputs from external services |
| GitRepository | source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1 | source-controller | Fetch from Git repositories |
| OCIRepository | source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1 | source-controller | Fetch OCI artifacts from registries |
| HelmRepository | source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1 | source-controller | Index Helm chart repositories |
| HelmChart | source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1 | source-controller | Fetch and package Helm charts |
| Bucket | source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1 | source-controller | Fetch from S3-compatible storage |
| ExternalArtifact | source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1 | (external) | Generic artifact storage for 3rd-party controllers |
| ArtifactGenerator | source.extensions.fluxcd.io/v1beta1 | source-controller | Compose/decompose artifacts from multiple sources |
| Kustomization | kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1 | kustomize-controller | Build and apply Kustomize overlays or plain YAML |
| HelmRelease | helm.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v2 | helm-controller | Install and manage Helm releases |
| Provider | notification.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1beta3 | notification-controller | External notification provider config |
| Alert | notification.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1beta3 | notification-controller | Route events to notification providers |
| Receiver | notification.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1 | notification-controller | Webhook receiver for incoming events |
| ImageRepository | image.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1 | image-reflector-controller | Scan container image registries |
| ImagePolicy | image.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1 | image-reflector-controller | Select image by version policy |
| ImageUpdateAutomation | image.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1 | image-automation-controller | Update YAML in Git with new image tags |
Flux controllers run a continuous reconciliation loop:
Use dependsOn to control reconciliation order. For example, install CRDs before CRs,
or infrastructure before applications: