Nov 06, 2025 · 3 min read · Loading views…

Bootstrap FluxCD with GitHub

Setting up FluxCD on a fresh cluster and linking it to a GitHub repo in minutes.

FluxCD’s bootstrap command wires a Kubernetes cluster to a Git repository so every change is reconciled automatically. With GitHub hosting the desired state, you can ship platform updates by merging pull requests instead of running kubectl by hand.

Here’s the streamlined bootstrap flow I use for greenfield clusters:

# authenticate with GitHub using a personal access token
export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_sampletokenvalue
flux bootstrap github \
  --owner=su-mangale \
  --repository=flux-platform \
  --branch=main \
  --path=clusters/production \
  --personal

The command installs Flux controllers, commits the manifests that track them, and configures the GitHub repo as the sync target. By default, Flux reconciles every minute, applying manifests under the specified path.

After the bootstrap completes, push workload definitions into clusters/production (or any other overlay path you chose). Flux will render and apply them, giving you a repeatable, declarative foundation managed directly from GitHub.