Apps

Apps define the workloads deployed to your cluster. Each app is an instance of a template, configured via config/apps.yaml.

How It Works

Exclude from Flux

tip

Generally, you want Flux to automatically reconcile your application changes.

Use this option to produce manifests that you intend to manually apply.

Apps are deployed via Flux using an apps-of-apps pattern. Apps marked with flux: true (the default) are included in Flux reconciliation. Use flux: false for bootstrap manifests that initialize the cluster itself (e.g., flux-bootstrap).

Uniqueness

Singletons

Some templates are intentionally configured to be singletons in cases where several instances of a template cannot co-exist (or, where it simply doesn't make sense). In these cases, the id field is ignored and the template name is always used.

The id field allows you to deploy the same template multiple times with different configurations. If not specified, id defaults to the template name.

Dependencies

Eventual Consistency

Generally, a guiding philosophy for Kubernetes deployments is that everything should eventually reconcile and stabilize. Use dependencies if, for some reason, eventual consistency isn't sufficient

Dependencies establish deployment order via Flux dependencies. If B depends on A - flux will ensure A is reconciled before deploying B.

Template Options

The options field is template-specific and enables applications to customize templates, thus influencing the generated manifests.

Configuration

# Bootstrap manifests (manually applied)
- template: flux-bootstrap
  flux: false

# Core cluster services with dependencies
- template: cert-manager
  id: cert-manager

- template: cilium

- template: external-dns
  dependencies:
    - cert-manager

# Monitoring stack
- template: prometheus-operator
  id: prometheus-operator

- template: prometheus
  dependencies:
    - prometheus-operator

- template: grafana
  dependencies:
    - prometheus

Schema

File: config/apps.yaml

Applications are defined as an array of app configurations.

Field	Type	Required	Description
template	string	✓	Template name to use for this app
id	string		App identifier (defaults to template name if not specified)
dependencies	array		List of app IDs this app depends on
flux	boolean		Whether to include this app in Flux reconciliation (default: true)
options	object		Template-specific options/configuration