ArgoCD › GitOps Principles

What are the core principles of GitOps?

Beginner

Answer

The widely cited principles are: the system is described declaratively; the desired state is versioned and immutable in Git; approved changes are pulled and applied automatically; and software agents continuously reconcile and alert on drift. Together they make deployments reproducible, auditable, and self-healing.
Real-world example A platform team documents these four principles as the standard for how every service is deployed and managed.

Common follow-ups: What does 'declarative' mean here? | What is continuous reconciliation?