ArgoCD is a popular GitOps tool that automates deployment and provides a streamlined continuous delivery experience. To deploy applications using ArgoCD, it needs to be connected to the repository where the application code is stored. There are four ways to connect private repositories to ArgoCD:

• via HTTPS

• via SSH

• via GitHub App

• via Google Connect

Here we are exploring two ways :

• via HTTPS

  • Using UI

  • Using CLI

• via SSH

  • Using UI

  • Using CLI

1) via HTTPS:

repoURL: https://

a) Private Repository in personal account

Username: <github-username>

Password: <github-password>

b) Private repo in organization and your account has organization access. username: <any non-empty string>

password: <personal-access-token>

A) Using UI

1. Open ArgoCD UI and navigate to the Settings --> Repositories tab.

2. Click on the CONNECT REPO USING HTTPS button.

3. Enter the repository URL in the REPO URL field.

4. If the repository is a private repository in your personal account, enter your GitHub username and password in the USERNAME and PASSWORD fields.

5. If the repository is a private repository in an organization and your account has organization access, enter a personal access token (PAT) in the PASSWORD field.

How to create Personal Access Token:

create a PAT:

• Go to your GitHub profile settings and select Developer Settings.

• Click on Personal access tokens.

• Click on Tokens(classic).

• Click on Generate New Token.

• Enter a name for the token and select the required scopes.

• Click on Generate token.

• Copy the token value (this is the value of your password field).

Note: If SSO is enabled for the organization, make sure to click on configure SSO button and authorize the respective organization.

B) Using CLI

Open a terminal and run the following command, replacing the placeholders with your values:

argocd repo add <repo-url> --username <github-username/non-empty string> --password <github-password/PAT>

2) via SSH

repoURL: git@

Create SSH Keys

create ssh key using the below command

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C <email>

This command creates two keys private key(id_rsa) and public key(id_rsa.pub) - Asymmetric Key Encryption

View ssh key

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Add public key to GitHub

1. Copy your public SSH key to your clipboard. You can do this by running the following command in your terminal:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

This will output your public SSH key, which you can then copy to your clipboard.

1. Go to your GitHub profile and click on "Settings" in the top-right corner.

2. Click on "SSH and GPG keys" in the left-hand menu.

3. Click on the "New SSH Key" button.

4. Give your key a descriptive title in the "Title" field (e.g., "My Work Laptop").

5. Paste your public SSH key content into the "Key" field.

6. Click on the "Add SSH key" button.

7. If you are a member of an organization that has enabled SSO (Single Sign-On), you will need to click on the "Configure SSO" button and authorize your respective organization. This will allow you to access the organization's repositories using your SSH key.

8. Your SSH key is now added to your GitHub account and you can use it to access repositories that you have been granted access to.

A) using UI

Go to Repositories and provide ssh private key which is located at cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa

B) using CLI

argocd repo add <repo-url> --ssh-private-key <private-key-path>

argocd repo add git@github.com:argoproj/my-private-repository --insecure-ignore-host-key --ssh-private-key-path ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Declarative Approach using Kubernetes secret

Github Repo Using HTTPS:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: private-repo
  namespace: argocd
  labels:
    argocd.argoproj.io/secret-type: repository
stringData:
  type: git
  url: <https://github.com/argoproj/private-repo>
  password: <my-password/personal-access-token>
  username: <my-username/non-empty-string>

To skip certificate validation add insecure: true

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: private-repo
  namespace: argocd
  labels:
    argocd.argoproj.io/secret-type: repository
stringData:
  type: git
  url: <https://github.com/argoproj/private-repo>
  password: <my-password/personal-access-token>
  username: <my-username/non-empty-string>
  insecure: true

Using SSH:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: private-repo
  namespace: argocd
  labels:
    argocd.argoproj.io/secret-type: repository
stringData:
  type: git
  url: <git@github.com:argoproj/my-private-repository>
  sshPrivateKey: |
    -----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----
    ...
    -----END OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----