In ArgoCD, a manifest is a YAML file for each Kubernetes resource you want you manage using ArgoCD. At certain intervals, typically once every 3 minutes, ArgoCD will compare the YAML manifest to the YAML in the version control system (such as GitHub) and if any differences are detected, ArgoCD will attempt a sync to update the YAML manifest to match the YAML in the version control system, which in turn will then push the YAML to Kubernetes or OpenShift.

For example, it's fairly common for a Kubernetes namespace to have:

• Deployment
• Replica Set
• Pods
• Service
• Route
• Config Maps
• Secrets
• Service Account

In the ArgoCD console, you should see something like this, showing the various resources in your namespace.

This assumes:

• You have an ArgoCD server up and running. If not, check out my article Install Red Hat OpenShift GitOps Operator using the console (Argo CD)
• You have installed the ArgoCD CLI.
• You are able to log into ArgoCD using the CLI. If not, check out my article Log into ArgoCD using the CLI on OpenShift

The argocd app list command can be used to list the app you have created.

~]$ argocd app list
NAME                   CLUSTER                         NAMESPACE  PROJECT  STATUS     HEALTH   SYNCPOLICY  CONDITIONS  REPO                                       PATH    TARGET
openshift-gitops/demo  https://kubernetes.default.svc  default    default  OutOfSync  Missing  Manual      <none>      https://github.com/my_project/my_repo.git  python

And then the argocd app manifest <app name> command can be used to display the manifests for the application.

~]$ argocd app manifests demo

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/instance: demo
  name: my-service-account
  namespace: my_project