Deploying Helm Charts With Argo CD Using a Helm Repository

To pull the chart from the GitLab registry, Argo CD needs the repository registered with credentials. Create a repository Secret. The argocd.argoproj.io/secret-type: repository label is what tells Argo CD this Secret defines a repo:

cat < $HOME/todo/app/manifests/helm-repo-secret.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: helm-repo-secret
  namespace: argocd
  labels:
    # "repository" registers this as a named repo
    argocd.argoproj.io/secret-type: repository
stringData:
  # Must match the Application's repoURL exactly
  url: $HELM_REPO_URL
  # "helm" tells Argo CD to treat this as a Helm repository, not a Git repo
  type: helm
  username: $GITLAB_USERNAME
  password: $GITLAB_TOKEN
EOF

Apply the manifest:

kubectl apply \
  -f $HOME/todo/app/manifests/helm-repo-secret.yaml

Update the Application to source the chart from the Helm repository. The name stays todo-app, so re-applying switches the source in place:

cat < $HOME/todo/app/manifests/app-helm-with-repo.yaml
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application

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