Using the Argo CD CLI with the managed capability - Amazon EKS
PrerequisitesConfigurationKey differencesExample: Register a cluster
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Using the Argo CD CLI with the managed capability

The Argo CD command line interface (CLI) works the same with the managed capability as it does with upstream Argo CD for most operations, but authentication and cluster registration differ.

Prerequisites

Install the Argo CD CLI following the upstream installation instructions on the Argo CD website.

Configuration

Configure the CLI using environment variables:

  1. Get the Argo CD server URL from the Amazon EKS console (under your cluster’s Capabilities page), or using the AWS CLI. The https:// prefix must be removed:

    export ARGOCD_SERVER=$(aws eks describe-capability \
  --cluster-name my-cluster \
  --capability-name my-argocd \
  --query 'capability.configuration.argoCd.serverUrl' \
  --output text \
  --region region-code | sed 's|^https://||')

  2. Generate an account token from the Argo CD UI (Settings → Accounts → admin → Generate New Token), then set it as an environment variable:

    export ARGOCD_AUTH_TOKEN="your-token-here"
    Important

    This configuration uses the admin account token for initial setup and development workflows. For production use cases, use project-scoped roles and tokens to follow the principle of least privilege. For more information about configuring project roles and RBAC, see Configure Argo CD permissions.

  3. Set the required gRPC option:

    export ARGOCD_OPTS="--grpc-web"

With these environment variables set, you can use the Argo CD CLI without the argocd login command.

Key differences

The managed capability has the following CLI limitations:

  • argocd admin commands are not supported (they require direct pod access)

  • argocd login is not supported (use account or project tokens instead)

  • argocd cluster add requires the --aws-cluster-name flag with the EKS cluster ARN

Example: Register a cluster

Register an EKS cluster for application deployment:

# Get the cluster ARN
CLUSTER_ARN=$(aws eks describe-cluster \
  --name my-cluster \
  --query 'cluster.arn' \
  --output text)

# Register the cluster
argocd cluster add $CLUSTER_ARN \
  --aws-cluster-name $CLUSTER_ARN \
  --name in-cluster \
  --project default

For more information about the Argo CD CLI, see the Argo CD CLI reference on the Argo CD website.