GitOps Meets Auto-Scaling: How ArgoCD and Karpenter Should Be Designed Together on EKS
ArgoCD and Karpenter are usually installed in the same cluster but designed in isolation. This post is about what happens when you stop treating them as two separate concerns and start designing them as one feedback loop. Mental model, anti-patterns, and real numbers from a 40-replica production workload.
Most EKS clusters I have audited in the last two years have ArgoCD installed and Karpenter installed. Almost none of them have those two things designed to work together. ArgoCD is set up by the platform team, Karpenter is set up later by the cost-optimization initiative, and the two run side by side without anyone owning the gap between them.
