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ArgoCD Integration#

The Hibernation Operator provides optional, native integration with ArgoCD, enabling platform teams to apply hibernation schedules based on ArgoCD AppProjects. This allows hibernation policies to align with GitOps application boundaries rather than infrastructure namespaces—ideal for organizations using ArgoCD for declarative application delivery.

💡 Note: ArgoCD integration is optional and must be explicitly enabled during installation.

How It Works#

When a ClusterResourceSupervisor specifies argocd.appProjects, the Hibernation Operator:

  1. Discovers all namespaces associated with the listed ArgoCD AppProjects (by reading the AppProject.spec.destinations field).
  2. Applies hibernation (scaling Deployments/StatefulSets to 0) to workloads in those namespaces according to the defined sleepSchedule and wakeSchedule.
  3. Tracks state in the CR’s status.sleepingNamespaces to ensure accurate restoration.

This means you can hibernate entire application portfolios (e.g., frontend-team, data-platform) with a single policy—without manually listing namespaces.

Enabling ArgoCD Integration#

Step 1: Install Hibernation Operator with ArgoCD Support#

During Helm installation, enable ArgoCD and specify the ArgoCD namespace:

helm install hibernation-operator oci://ghcr.io/stakater/public/charts/hibernation-operator \
  --namespace hibernation-system \
  --create-namespace \
  --set argoCD.enabled=true \
  --set argoCD.namespace=argocd

✅ The operator requires read-only access to AppProject resources in the ArgoCD namespace.

Step 2: Create a ClusterResourceSupervisor Targeting AppProjects#

apiVersion: hibernation.stakater.com/v1beta1
kind: ClusterResourceSupervisor
metadata:
  name: argocd-hibernation-policy
spec:
  argocd:
    namespace: argocd                # ← Namespace where ArgoCD is installed
    appProjects:                     # ← List of AppProject names
      - frontend-team
      - mobile-apps
      - data-platform
  schedule:
    sleepSchedule: "0 18 * * 1-5"   # Sleep weekdays at 6 PM UTC
    wakeSchedule: "0 8 * * 1-5"     # Wake weekdays at 8 AM UTC

Apply it:

kubectl apply -f cluster-resource-supervisor-argocd.yaml

Step 3: Verify Targeted Namespaces#

Check the status to see which namespaces are being watched:

kubectl get clusterresourcesupervisor argocd-hibernation-policy -o jsonpath='{.status.watchedNamespaces}'

Example output:

["frontend-dev", "mobile-staging", "data-platform-prod"]

These are the namespaces defined in the destinations of the specified AppProjects.

Key Benefits#

Benefit Description
GitOps-Aligned Hibernation Hibernation follows application ownership (via AppProjects), not manual namespace lists.
Dynamic Namespace Discovery New namespaces added to an AppProject are automatically included in hibernation.
No Duplication Avoid maintaining separate namespace lists in both ArgoCD and hibernation policies.
Safe & Observable Original replica counts are preserved; status shows exactly which apps are sleeping.

Requirements & Permissions#

  • ArgoCD must be installed in the cluster (typically in the argocd namespace).
  • The Hibernation Operator needs the following RBAC (automatically included when argoCD.enabled=true):
- apiGroups: ["argoproj.io"]
  resources: ["appprojects"]
  verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]

🔒 The operator never modifies ArgoCD resources—it only reads AppProject definitions.

Combining with Other Targeting Methods#

You can combine ArgoCD targeting with explicit namespaces or label selectors:

spec:
  argocd:
    namespace: argocd
    appProjects: ["frontend-team"]
  namespaces:
    names: ["legacy-staging"]
    labelSelector:
      matchLabels:
        env: dev

In this case, hibernation applies to:

  • All namespaces in the frontend-team AppProject plus
  • The legacy-staging namespace plus
  • Any namespace with label env=dev

🔄 The union of all targeting methods is used.

Troubleshooting Tips#

  • AppProject not found? Ensure the appProjects names exactly match the AppProject resource names (case-sensitive).
  • Namespace not hibernating? Verify the namespace appears in AppProject.spec.destinations.
  • Permission errors? Check that the operator’s ServiceAccount has get/list/watch on appprojects.argoproj.io.