Argo CD Toolkit brings the Argo CD CLI into VS Code with browsable side-bar views, command palette actions, and snippets for common Argo CD manifests.
The extension intentionally uses the official argocd CLI as its execution layer. That keeps support broad across applications, projects, clusters, repositories, repository credentials, accounts, certificates, GPG keys, contexts, admin commands, sync options, and new flags added by Argo CD.
Features
- Activity bar container with Applications, Projects, Clusters, Repositories, and Contexts views.
- Login, logout, relogin, version, and open UI commands.
- Application operations: create, details, sync, sync OutOfSync apps in bulk, update parameters, refresh, hard refresh, diff, logs, manifests, resources, history, wait, rollback, terminate operation, and delete.
- Project operations: create, details, and delete.
- Repository operations: add, details, and remove.
- Cluster operations: add, details, and remove.
- Context switching, new-context login, context editing, and context removal from the Contexts view.
- Command catalog for the rest of Argo CD, including accounts, certificates, GPG keys, repository credentials, sync windows, admin export/import, and shell completion.
- Escape hatch command:
Argo CD: Run Any CLI Command.
- YAML snippets for
Application, multi-source Application, AppProject, and ApplicationSet.
Requirements
Download and install the official Argo CD CLI before using this extension. The extension calls argocd under the hood, so the CLI must be available first.
On Windows, you can download the latest CLI with PowerShell:
$version = (Invoke-RestMethod https://api.github.com/repos/argoproj/argo-cd/releases/latest).tag_name
$url = "https://github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/releases/download/$version/argocd-windows-amd64.exe"
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -OutFile argocd.exe
Move argocd.exe to a folder on your PATH, or point the extension directly to the executable.
If the CLI is elsewhere, set:
{
"argocd.cliPath": "C:\\tools\\argocd.exe"
}
Troubleshooting
Can the Session Be Permanent?
Normal argocd login sessions are not permanent. Argo CD controls their lifetime on the server side with users.session.duration, and expired local-user sessions need a relogin.
An Argo CD admin can make sessions last longer by changing users.session.duration in argocd-cm, for example:
data:
users.session.duration: "168h"
The VS Code setting argocd.usersSessionDuration is shown in this extension's settings as a reference for that server-side value. Argo CD only applies the duration after it is configured on the server.
For automation or service-account style access, Argo CD account tokens can be generated with no expiration by default:
argocd account generate-token
Then start VS Code with the token in the environment so the argocd CLI can use it:
$env:ARGOCD_AUTH_TOKEN = "<TOKEN>"
code .
Long-lived tokens should be treated like passwords. Prefer normal login for day-to-day interactive use unless your organization explicitly wants token-based access.
Token-Based Contexts
Argo CD Context: Add supports token login. Choose Token to paste an existing Argo CD auth token, or choose Generate token to create a token for the current or named account with an expiration in days and immediately save it as the new context.
The generated-token flow uses the Argo CD CLI command:
argocd account generate-token --expires-in 168h
Generating a token requires an existing valid login or other CLI authentication that can create account tokens for the selected server.
Argo CD Context: Edit can update an existing saved context. Choose Re-login / update credentials to run the login flow again with the existing context name prefilled, or choose Edit local name/server/user references to edit the saved local Argo CD config entry directly.
Expired Argo CD Session
If a view shows an error like rpc error: code = Unauthenticated ... invalid session: token is expired, the saved Argo CD login token has expired after not using it for a while.
Run Argo CD: Relogin from the VS Code command palette, or run one of these commands:
argocd relogin
argocd login <ARGOCD_SERVER> --sso
argocd login <ARGOCD_SERVER> --username <USER> --password <PASSWORD>
Then refresh the Argo CD views.
If the same output also says Use flag --grpc-web in grpc calls, enable:
{
"argocd.grpcWeb": true
}
Or add --grpc-web to the CLI command:
argocd relogin --grpc-web
argocd login <ARGOCD_SERVER> --sso --grpc-web
Then log in again and refresh.
Common Settings
{
"argocd.defaultServer": "argocd.example.com",
"argocd.defaultContext": "production",
"argocd.applicationsAutoRefresh": true,
"argocd.applicationsAutoRefreshIntervalSeconds": 15,
"argocd.usersSessionDuration": "168h",
"argocd.insecure": false,
"argocd.grpcWeb": false,
"argocd.portForward": false,
"argocd.portForwardNamespace": "argocd",
"argocd.extraArgs": []
}
Application Parameter Updates
Use Argo CD Application: Update Parameters from an application row icon, context menu, or the command palette. The command loads existing Helm parameters from the selected application and shows them in a searchable picker. Choose a parameter to edit just that value, add a new parameter, or apply the pending changes.
The bulk paste action also accepts comma-separated name=value pairs:
nameOverride=nexus, backend.image.tag=1.202-26, ui.image.tag=1.202-26
You can also paste JSON in the same shape Argo CD stores Helm parameters:
{
"parameters": [
{ "name": "nameOverride", "value": "nexus" },
{ "name": "backend.image.tag", "value": "1.202-26" },
{ "name": "ui.image.tag", "value": "1.202-26" }
]
}
Development
npm install
npm run compile
Open this folder in VS Code and press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host.
Notes
Some Argo CD operations are intentionally opened in an integrated terminal because the CLI may need to stream logs, show diff output, open SSO, ask Kubernetes registration questions, or display long-running progress. Application sync output is streamed to the Argo CD output channel so the Applications view can refresh while the sync is active and several times after sync completes.
