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Quickstart

This validates the end-to-end KICK flow on a Kind cluster:

  1. install KICK;
  2. apply a Deployment that reads a Secret, plus a KickPolicy;
  3. change the Secret;
  4. watch KICK restart the Deployment.

The local dev commands use context kind-kick-dev and kubeconfig .kubeconfig-kind-kick-dev. Add --context / --kubeconfig to match your setup.

1) Install KICK 

make kind-create
make kind-load
make install

Already have a cluster? Install the chart instead — see Installation.

2) Apply a workload and a policy 

kubectl -n shop apply -f - <<'EOF'
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata: { name: shop }
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata: { name: web-secret, namespace: shop }
type: Opaque
stringData: { API_TOKEN: alpha }
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata: { name: web, namespace: shop, labels: { app: web } }
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector: { matchLabels: { app: web } }
  template:
    metadata: { labels: { app: web } }
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: app
        image: nginx
        envFrom:
        - secretRef: { name: web-secret }
---
apiVersion: kick.corewire.io/v1alpha1
kind: KickPolicy
metadata: { name: web, namespace: shop }
spec:
  discovery:
    workloadSelector:
      matchLabels: { app: web }
EOF

3) Change the Secret 

kubectl -n shop patch secret web-secret --type merge \
  -p '{"stringData":{"API_TOKEN":"bravo"}}'

4) Observe the request and rollout 

kubectl -n shop get kickrequests -w
kubectl -n shop rollout status deploy/web --timeout=5m

Success signal:

  • a KickRequest appears and reaches Succeeded or NoLongerRequired;
  • the Deployment starts a fresh rollout.

Optional: gate on Argo CD

To make restarts respect Argo CD ownership and sync windows, install Argo CD and set spec.gitOps.provider: Auto on the policy:

kubectl create namespace argocd
kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml
kubectl -n argocd rollout status deploy/argocd-server --timeout=5m

See the Argo CD guide for a full Argo CD-tracked workload and policy.

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InstallationComparison