New option to use a single ArgoCD instance

by Michele Baldessari

June 4, 2026

patterns argocd gitops acm

Preamble

Historically, the VP framework had two Argo CD instances: a clusterwide one used for more privileged parts like namespaces, subscriptions, etc. where the "App-of-Apps" Argo application lived and another namespaced Argo CD instance where all the other Argo Applications lived.

While this separation provided useful security boundaries, it brought additional resource usage and complexity. Running a single instance reduces the overall footprint on the cluster and simplifies troubleshooting by having all Argo Applications in one place.

How to have a single Argo CD instance

It is now possible to use a single Argo CD instance for all objects managed by the Validated Patterns framework.

Set .Values.global.singleArgoCD to true in your pattern’s values-global.yaml file:

global:
  pattern: multicloud-gitops
  singleArgoCD: true

No other changes are needed. The clustergroup charts and the ACM chart will handle everything. The "App-of-Apps" pattern stays the same only the target Argo CD instance changes.

Note that this flag is only supported for new installs. Changing an existing installation with two Argo CD instances by setting .Values.global.singleArgoCD to true afterwards is very unlikely to work.