Kubernetes workloads

Grid is not only a Terraform control plane. The product model is one Git-backed desired-state tree and one release loop; how a unit is realized depends on its engine.

Engine	What it operates
terraform	Cloud modules, managed clusters, node pools, and other catalog subtypes — generate / plan / apply via grid-cli
kubernetes	In-cluster workloads (Applications, Helm, Kustomize, Jobs, …) via GitOps (Argo CD / OpenShift GitOps). Exposed when kubernetesWorkloads is on

Two different “Kubernetes” ideas

Do not confuse them:

Kind	Engine	Example
Managed cluster / node pool	terraform	Cluster and node-pool subtypes in the provider catalog
Workloads inside a cluster	kubernetes	Deployments, Helm releases, Application CRs reconciled by Argo

Clusters are infrastructure. Workloads are continuous delivery on top of a cluster. Grid is designed to own both under the same project / environment / RBAC story.

What GitOps means here

1. Desired-state Sync — Grid pulls your Git repo of path-shaped JSON into inventory. That is shared for every engine.
2. Workload GitOps — for kubernetes units, apply does not mean terraform apply. It means Grid drives (or hands off to) a cluster GitOps reconciler so the cluster converges on the workload intent you declared.

Naming in the console keeps Sources for the desired-state remote so “GitOps” can mean in-cluster CD without colliding with Sync settings — Console overview.

Unit shape (direction of travel)

Workload units still live under the same path grammar:

projects/<project>/<cloud-or-platform>/<environment>/<infra-type>/<name>.json

The JSON carries engine metadata and workload kind (Application, Helm, Kustomize, CronJob, …). Field names follow the API contract in grid-core for that engine.

RBAC already reserves a kubernetes domain for view / apply when the engine is enabled — Auth, RBAC, and approvals.

Exit ramp for workloads

Same philosophy as Terraform: Grid must not be a black box.

You keep	Outside Grid
Git history of workload intent	Argo / OpenShift GitOps (or kubectl / Helm) against the cluster
Cluster credentials you already use	No proprietary workload state format required by Grid

See Exit ramp.

Related flags and config

Knob	Role
kubernetesWorkloads (UI)	Hide / show workload engine surfaces
GRID_ARGO_ENABLED	Core Argo / OpenShift GitOps integration
GRID_ARGO_KUBECONFIG	Cluster kubeconfig for the reconciler

Details: Feature flags · Configuration.

Related

• Concepts overview
• Exit ramp
• Infrastructure
• Roadmap