ArgoCD with Terraform and Crossplane: Managing Infrastructure Alongside Applications

Calendar February 22, 2026
Cicd
Intermediate
Gitops-Infrastructure, Crossplane-Patterns, Argocd-Patterns
Argocd, Gitops, Crossplane, Terraform, Infrastructure-as-Code, Cloud-Resources
Argocd, Crossplane, Terraform, Kubectl, Helm

ArgoCD with Terraform and Crossplane#

Applications need infrastructure – databases, queues, caches, object storage, DNS records, certificates. In a GitOps workflow managed by ArgoCD, there are two approaches to provisioning that infrastructure: Crossplane (Kubernetes-native) and Terraform (external). Each has different strengths and integration patterns with ArgoCD.

Crossplane: Infrastructure as Kubernetes CRDs#

Crossplane extends Kubernetes with CRDs that represent cloud resources. An RDS instance becomes a YAML manifest. A GCS bucket becomes a YAML manifest. ArgoCD manages these manifests exactly like it manages Deployments and Services.

GitOps and Infrastructure as Code: Reconciliation Patterns for Terraform, ArgoCD, and Crossplane

Calendar February 22, 2026
Cicd
Intermediate, Advanced
Gitops-Iac-Integration, Reconciliation-Design, Terraform-Argocd-Patterns, Crossplane-Patterns
Gitops, Terraform, Argocd, Crossplane, Reconciliation, Infrastructure-as-Code, Drift-Detection, Continuous-Reconciliation, Push-vs-Pull
Terraform, Argocd, Crossplane, Flux

GitOps and Infrastructure as Code#

GitOps says: the desired state is in Git. A controller continuously reconciles the real state to match. Infrastructure as Code says: the desired state is in code. A human (or agent) runs apply to push changes.

These two paradigms overlap but do not align perfectly. Kubernetes resources fit the GitOps model well — ArgoCD/Flux watch Git, detect differences, and apply changes continuously. Cloud infrastructure (VPCs, databases, IAM roles) fits the IaC model better — Terraform tracks state, computes diffs, and applies on command.