Answer
Server-Side Apply (SSA) lets Kubernetes merge changes field-by-field with ownership tracking, avoiding the last-applied-configuration annotation size limits (e.g., large CRDs) and reducing conflicts when multiple controllers manage different fields. ArgoCD can use SSA per-sync or per-resource to apply big CRDs and coexist with other field managers.
metadata:
annotations:
argocd.argoproj.io/sync-options: ServerSideApply=trueReal-world example A very large CRD that failed client-side apply due to annotation size limits applies cleanly with ServerSideApply.