--- title: What Is GitOps? Principles, Benefits, and How It Works description: GitOps is defined as an operational model where a Git repository holds declarative desired state while an in-cluster agent continuously pulls and reconciles... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/what-is-gitops-principles-benefits-and-how-it-works-zgo98fmyl twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: What Is GitOps? Principles, Benefits, and How It Works | daily.dev og:description: GitOps is defined as an operational model where a Git repository holds declarative desired state while an in-cluster agent continuously pulls and reconciles... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/what-is-gitops-principles-benefits-and-how-it-works-zgo98fmyl og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/zgo98fmyl.png og:image:alt: What Is GitOps? Principles, Benefits, and How It Works og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # What Is GitOps? Principles, Benefits, and How It Works **[Coralogix](https://daily.dev/sources/coralogix)** · 14 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary GitOps is defined as an operational model where a Git repository holds declarative desired state while an in-cluster agent continuously pulls and reconciles that state against the live environment. The piece walks through the four OpenGitOps principles (Declarative, Versioned and Immutable, Pulled Automatically, Continuously Reconciled), contrasts pull-based with push-based deployment, distinguishes GitOps from DevOps and IaC, lists benefits like faster rollback and reduced drift, compares Argo CD and Flux defaults, and outlines a step-by-step path to adopting GitOps on Kubernetes, plus an FAQ on secrets, Jenkins, and non-Kubernetes use cases. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What are the four principles of GitOps according to OpenGitOps? The four principles are Declarative, Versioned and Immutable, Pulled Automatically, and Continuously Reconciled. Declarative means expressing desired state rather than imperative commands; Versioned and Immutable requires a state store like Git with full history; Pulled Automatically means an in-cluster agent fetches state rather than CI pushing it; Continuously Reconciled means the agent constantly corrects drift between live and desired state. _Developers formalizing a GitOps rollout can keep these principles handy while comparing tools on daily.dev._ ### What is the main difference between Argo CD and Flux for GitOps reconciliation? Argo CD requires opting into drift correction with selfHeal: true and prune: true settings and offers a web interface, while Flux reverts drift automatically without extra configuration and relies on the flux CLI plus Git for its interface. Both are CNCF graduated reconciliation engines, but Argo CD is installed from a pinned manifest whereas Flux manages its own installation via flux bootstrap. _Teams weighing Argo CD against Flux can track these tooling comparisons on daily.dev before committing._ ### Why is pull-based deployment considered more secure than push-based deployment in CI/CD pipelines? Pull-based deployment removes the need for CI/CD pipelines to hold cluster credentials, since an in-cluster agent with a read-only outbound connection to Git fetches and applies changes instead of CI pushing them with kubectl apply or helm upgrade. This avoids a god-mode scenario where compromising CI grants direct cluster write access, letting the control plane stay off the public network. _Engineers hardening deployment pipelines can follow security-relevant architecture shifts like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [GitOps in 2026: Why Pull Requests Are Taking Over Cloud Operations](https://daily.dev/posts/gitops-in-2026-why-pull-requests-are-taking-over-cloud-operations-lnhyrihek) · DevOps.com · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Managing Infrastructure: Everything Is a Pull Request](https://daily.dev/posts/managing-infrastructure-everything-is-a-pull-request-uxcw0owxg) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [GitOps Best Practices I Wish I Had Known Before](https://daily.dev/posts/gitops-best-practices-i-wish-i-had-known-before-kf2n6pqeu) · Pulumi · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [How to Implement GitOps on Kubernetes Using Argo CD](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-implement-gitops-on-kubernetes-using-argo-cd-m6tftogdu) · freeCodeCamp · 6 upvotes · 0 comments - [GitOps Implementation at Enterprise Scale, Moving Beyond Traditional CI/CD](https://daily.dev/posts/gitops-implementation-at-enterprise-scale-moving-beyond-traditional-ci-cd-dn84xij98) · SD Times · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#kubernetes](https://daily.dev/tags/kubernetes), [#cicd](https://daily.dev/tags/cicd), [#gitops](https://daily.dev/tags/gitops), [#argocd](https://daily.dev/tags/argocd), [#flux](https://daily.dev/tags/flux) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/what-is-gitops-principles-benefits-and-how-it-works-zgo98fmyl) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"What Is GitOps? 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