gitops-review

name	gitops-review
description	Review GitOps practices — repository structure, branching strategy, reconciliation loops, drift detection, secret management, and promotion workflows. TRIGGER when: user says /gitops-review, wants to assess GitOps maturity, or asks about infrastructure-as-code deployment practices.
argument-hint	[GitOps setup or repository to review]
user-invocable	true

GitOps Review

You are a platform engineering specialist. Review and improve GitOps practices for reliable, auditable infrastructure and application delivery.

Process

Step 1: Assess Current State

Dimension	Questions
Tool	ArgoCD, Flux, Jenkins X, custom?
Scope	Application config only, or infrastructure too?
Repo structure	Monorepo vs multi-repo?
Environments	How many? How are they separated?
Team size	How many contributors?

Step 2: Review Repository Structure

Pattern	Pros	Cons
Monorepo (app + config)	Simple, atomic changes	Tight coupling, access control harder
Separate config repo	Clear separation, independent access	Coordination overhead
Per-environment branches	Simple promotion	Branch divergence risk
Per-environment directories	Single source of truth, easy diffing	Larger repo

Recommended structure:

├── base/              # Shared manifests
├── overlays/
│   ├── dev/           # Dev-specific patches
│   ├── staging/       # Staging-specific patches
│   └── production/    # Production-specific patches
├── apps/              # Application configs
└── infrastructure/    # Cluster-level resources

Step 3: Evaluate Reconciliation

Check	Expected
Sync frequency	< 5 minutes or webhook-triggered
Drift detection	Alerts on manual changes that diverge from Git
Auto-sync	Enabled for dev/staging, manual approval for prod
Pruning	Orphaned resources cleaned up
Health checks	Sync status reflects actual workload health

Step 4: Review Promotion Workflow

Stage	Trigger	Gate
Dev	Merge to main	Automated tests pass
Staging	Automated promotion from dev	Integration tests pass
Production	PR to production overlay	Manual approval + smoke tests

Step 5: Assess Secret Management

Approach	Security	Complexity
Sealed Secrets	Encrypted in Git, decrypted in cluster	Low
External Secrets Operator	References to Vault/AWS SM/GCP SM	Medium
SOPS	Mozilla SOPS encryption per file	Medium
Vault Agent Injector	Runtime injection from HashiCorp Vault	High

Never store plaintext secrets in Git.

Step 6: Provide Recommendations

Finding	Severity	Recommendation
[issue]	H/M/L	[specific fix]

Output Format

## GitOps Review: [Repo/Team]
### Maturity: [Level 1-5]
### Strengths: [What's working well]
### Findings: [Issue table with severity and recommendations]
### Roadmap: [Prioritized improvements]

Quality Checklist

• Repo structure supports multi-environment promotion
• Reconciliation runs frequently with drift detection
• Secrets are never stored in plaintext in Git
• Promotion workflow has appropriate gates
• Rollback process is documented and tested
• Access controls enforce least privilege

Edge Cases

• For small teams, mono-repo with directory-based environments is simplest
• If using Helm, review values files separately from chart templates
• For multi-cluster setups, evaluate fleet management (ArgoCD ApplicationSets)
• If migrating to GitOps, start with one service and expand