GitOps combines the best ideas from DevOps and infrastructure as code (IaC). By storing definitions of infrastructure and applications in version control, teams can use familiar tools to make, review, rollback, and audit those changes. Just like DevOps, there are cultural and technical elements to GitOps. Teams agree to flow all changes through declarative state files and decide on the collaboration around changes. Once a team makes a change, high levels of automation ensure they are applied.
How GitOps works: The reconciliation loop
At the core of GitOps is a reconciliation loop that:
- Observes the system’s current state
- Compares it to the desired state
- Makes adjustments to align them
The loop runs continuously, keeping your system in sync with the configuration in version control.