Gates bound to a digest
Each approval is tied to the exact frozen plan and expires. Change the plan and the approval no longer applies.
ASTRONOMER PRODUCT / GITOPS DELIVERY
Release once. Reconcile everywhere.
Astronomer owns the decisions: which version, which clusters, in what order, with whose approval. Flux on each cluster owns the convergence. The result is one delivery path for your applications, your platform components and the apps you install from the catalog.
Alpha · Flux v2.9.6 distribution · No branch tracking01 / THE MODEL
From a source revision to a healthy cluster.#
Every step is a durable record in PostgreSQL. A mutable tag alone is never deployable: a bundle version pins an immutable commit, digest or chart version plus checksum.
- Source
A project-scoped Git, OCI artifact, Helm HTTP or Helm OCI source. Credentials are write-only and encrypted or referenced externally. Signature verification policy is set per source and checked offline.
- Bundle version
An append-only, immutable version of a Helm or Kustomize component, verified centrally before it can be released.
- Target
Selects clusters by label or cluster group, with bounded per-target values and patch overrides.
- Rollout
Releases the version to the frozen placement under a strategy, approvals, maintenance windows and a failure budget.
- Assignment
Each cluster’s agent accepts only assignments for its own identity and materializes a closed set of Flux objects in Astronomer-owned namespaces.
- Reconcile
Local Flux source, Kustomize and Helm controllers converge the cluster and report status back through the agent.
02 / PLACEMENT
See the cluster list before you launch.#
The placement preview is evaluated by the server, inside the project’s scope, and shows which clusters are selected and which are excluded or blocked, and why. Launching a rollout binds it to that preview’s digest.
Placement is resolved centrally and frozen for the rollout. If someone relabels a cluster halfway through, the cohort does not silently change.
- All-cluster targets require an explicit confirmation
astro delivery target previewreturns the same answer- Stale assignment generations are rejected by the agent
03 / ROLLOUTS
Choose how fast a change spreads.#
Pause, approve, retry, supersede, roll back and cancel are durable operations with an audit record, not state held in a browser tab.
| Strategy | How it releases |
|---|---|
| All at once | Every selected cluster receives the new version together. |
| Rolling | A bounded number of clusters at a time, with a maximum unavailable by count or percentage. |
| Canary | A first group by count or percentage, an optional soak and an optional approval before the rest. |
| Partitioned cohorts | Ordered partitions, each with its own cluster selector, optional approval and soak time. |
Maintenance windows
Rollouts respect maintenance windows, so a change waits for its window instead of landing at the wrong hour.
Failure budgets
Set a failure threshold by count or percentage and the action to take when it is crossed. Retry only the failed clusters, or roll back to the recorded previous version.
DELIVERY OVERVIEWASTRONOMER
04 / STATUS AND DRIFT
One view of what actually converged.#
Astronomer reads Flux conditions and inventory on each cluster and normalizes them: ready, failed, drifted, orphaned or stale. The delivery overview shows Flux-ready clusters, failed assignments, incompatible controllers and drift across the fleet.
Astronomer supplies the desired objects and observes Flux; it never writes Flux’s status for it. Objects Astronomer does not own are shown as drift and left alone.
- Applications and System Components views across clusters
- Per-cluster history and resource evidence
- Catalog and delivery metrics, alerts and dashboards
05 / WHEN ASTRONOMER IS DOWN
Clusters keep their last good state.#
Because Flux runs on the cluster, the last accepted assignment keeps reconciling during a management-plane outage. When the connection returns, the agent reports bounded status and picks up newer assignments.
New intent, approvals and the central view need the management plane. Released intent does not.
astro / delivery
astro delivery source list
astro delivery bundle version-list <bundle-id>
astro delivery target preview06 / APPS CATALOG
Install the platform pieces you choose.#
Each cluster has an Apps page with installed releases, a catalog to browse and recommendations. Sources are curated, Astronomer first-party, community or added by you. An install is an ordinary delivery: you review immutable values, then Flux owns the release.
21 curated applications
Constellation, kube-state-metrics, Prometheus Node Exporter, Metrics Server, kube-prometheus-stack, Grafana, Loki, Trivy Operator, cert-manager, Ingress NGINX, External Secrets Operator, Kyverno, Longhorn, OPA Gatekeeper, Fluent Bit, ExternalDNS, Velero, OpenTelemetry Collector, Grafana Tempo, KEDA and CloudNativePG.
- Schema-guided install and upgrade forms with a recommended namespace
- Raw YAML values whenever you need full control
- HTTPS or digest-pinned OCI catalog sources, with an air-gap export and import
- Curated sync can be turned off without losing installed apps
CLUSTER / APPSASTRONOMER
FAQ
Delivery questions.#
Can a target follow a branch?
No. Branch tracking is intentionally excluded. Publish a new immutable bundle version from the commit you want, then roll it out. #
Do we get the Flux UI or notifications?
Astronomer runs the Flux source, Kustomize and Helm controllers only. The notification, image-reflector and image-automation controllers are not part of the distribution. Status, alerts and history come through Astronomer. #
Can we edit the generated Flux objects?
You should not. Change the bundle, override or rollout instead, and roll back through the recorded previous version. Direct edits are drift. #
Is there an Argo CD or Rancher Fleet mode?
No. There is one delivery path. Astronomer does not install, wrap or emulate Argo CD or Rancher Fleet. #
Are there size limits?
Yes, published per release: for example, up to 32 concurrent assignments per cluster, 10,000 rendered objects per deployment and 100 MiB per Helm chart. #
NEXT STEP
See Astronomer with your environment in mind.
Tell AlphaBravo what you run today. We will show you the workflows that matter to your team.