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The DevOps Odyssey, Part 6 — Closing the Loop with GitHub Auto-Tagging

originally posted at LinkedIn at November 13, 2025

In the last chapter, I left a promise — to make the system truly GitOps-native. To bridge the small but important gap between building images and updating manifests.

That loop is now closed.

Every time a Docker image for Job Winner or the photo app is built and pushed, GitHub Actions updates the Argo CD repository automatically. No manual tag edits, no pull requests waiting in the dark. The commit that produces the container now also defines its deployment.

The infrastructure finally breathes on its own.

Throwing remote triggers to upgrade Autobot

The DevOps Odyssey, Part 5: Migration of Job Winner and Release of the Photo App

originally posted at LinkedIn at Oct 23, 2025

In Part 4, I closed with a simple plan: migrate Job Winner into the cluster and build a photo app that would reconnect my creative and technical worlds. Those two threads finally came together — one practical, one personal — and in the process, the Odyssey took another quiet but meaningful turn.

DevOps meets Photography - all connected by Autobots.

The DevOps Odyssey, Part 4: Secrets, GitHub Auth, and Scaling Out

originally posted at LinkedIn at Aug 31, 2025

In Part 1, I bootstrapped a zero-click deployment pipeline on OCI with Terraform, Ansible, and Docker Compose — complete with HTTPS, DNS, and CI/CD.

Part 2 evolved that into a Kubernetes-native architecture, replacing Docker with K3s for a declarative control plane.

Part 3 brought in GitOps with Argo CD, letting the cluster manage itself from a single commit.

Now, in Part 4, I pushed the setup toward something that looks and feels much closer to production. Three key steps made that happen:

  1. Sealing secrets so I could finally commit them to Git safely.
  2. Adding GitHub authentication with Dex, making the Argo CD UI open (read-only) to anyone with a GitHub account.
  3. Expanding the cluster with a proper worker node — and replacing my ill-fated “master as NAT” shortcut with OCI’s managed NAT Gateway.

Autobot master cloned a worker self to prepare for the upcoming battle.

The DevOps Odyssey, Part 3: GitOps on K3s with Argo CD — Self-Managing Infrastructure from a Single Commit

originally posted at LinkedIn at July 31, 2025

In Part 1, we bootstrapped a zero-click deployment pipeline on OCI using Terraform, Ansible, and Docker Compose — complete with HTTPS, DNS, and CI/CD.

Part 2 evolved that foundation into a Kubernetes-native architecture, replacing Docker with K3s. That gave us a declarative control plane and a better foundation for future growth — without sacrificing simplicity or resource constraints.

Now, in Part 3, we finally bring in GitOps: managing the entire cluster from a Git repository using Argo CD. This marks the transition from automation to self-reconciliation — and sets the stage for horizontal scaling and federated identity in the next phase.

Automation bots have evolved. What’s next?