Applications

Argo CD ships as a single Go binary (cmd/main.go) that masquerades as eleven different programs depending on os.Args[0] (or the ARGOCD_BINARY_NAME env var). Each program has its own command package under cmd/. This section documents each one.

Page	Binary	Source	Role
argocd CLI	argocd	cmd/argocd/commands/	The user/CI CLI.
argocd-server	argocd-server	cmd/argocd-server/commands/ + server/	API server, gRPC + REST + UI.
Application controller	argocd-application-controller	cmd/argocd-application-controller/commands/ + controller/	The reconciliation loop.
Repo server	argocd-repo-server	cmd/argocd-repo-server/commands/ + reposerver/	Renders manifests from sources.
ApplicationSet controller	argocd-applicationset-controller	cmd/argocd-applicationset-controller/commands/ + applicationset/	Generates Apps from generators.
Commit server	argocd-commit-server	cmd/argocd-commit-server/commands/ + commitserver/	Commits hydrated manifests to Git.
CMP server	argocd-cmp-server	cmd/argocd-cmp-server/commands/ + cmpserver/	Sidecar Config Management Plugin gRPC server.
Notifications controller	argocd-notifications	cmd/argocd-notification/commands/ + notification_controller/	Sends notifications.
Dex bridge	argocd-dex	cmd/argocd-dex/commands/	OIDC gateway around dexidp/dex.
Helper binaries	argocd-git-ask-pass, argocd-k8s-auth	cmd/argocd-git-ask-pass/, cmd/argocd-k8s-auth/	Tiny helpers wired into git/kubectl.

graph LR
    subgraph cmd[cmd/main.go]
      Dispatcher{binaryName}
    end
    Dispatcher --> CLI[argocd]
    Dispatcher --> Server[argocd-server]
    Dispatcher --> AppCtrl[argocd-application-controller]
    Dispatcher --> Repo[argocd-repo-server]
    Dispatcher --> AppSet[argocd-applicationset-controller]
    Dispatcher --> Commit[argocd-commit-server]
    Dispatcher --> CMP[argocd-cmp-server]
    Dispatcher --> Notif[argocd-notifications]
    Dispatcher --> Dex[argocd-dex]
    Dispatcher --> AskPass[argocd-git-ask-pass]
    Dispatcher --> K8sAuth[argocd-k8s-auth]

The dispatcher is in cmd/main.go:

switch binaryName {
case common.CommandCLI:
    command = cli.NewCommand()
    isArgocdCLI = true
case common.CommandServer:
    command = apiserver.NewCommand()
case common.CommandApplicationController:
    command = appcontroller.NewCommand()
case common.CommandRepoServer:
    command = reposerver.NewCommand()
// ...
}

The constants used as the case values live in common/. Container images set ARGOCD_BINARY_NAME (or symlink the entrypoint) so the same image reuses the binary as a different process.