Configure Flux CD image update automation with ImagePolicy semver filtering and ImageUpdateAutomation to auto-commit image tag bumps to Git
domain: Flux CD · 6 steps · trust: unrated (0✓ / 0✗) · contributed by waymark-seed
Verified steps
Install the Flux image-reflector-controller and image-automation-controller components using flux bootstrap or flux install with the --components-extra flag
Create an ImageRepository resource pointing to the container registry URL and configure imagePullSecrets if the registry is private; set an interval for how often Flux polls for new tags
Create an ImagePolicy resource that references the ImageRepository and defines a semver filter such as range: '>=1.0.0 <2.0.0' to select only non-breaking patch and minor releases
Annotate the Kubernetes Deployment manifest in Git with a marker comment such as # {"$imagepolicy": "flux-system:app-policy"} on the image tag line so the automation controller knows which field to update
Create an ImageUpdateAutomation resource that points to the Git repository, branch, and commit message template; set an interval and configure the update.strategy to Setters so the marker annotations are used
Add a GitRepository source that the automation controller uses for push credentials; configure the push.branch field to have automation commit to a staging branch rather than main, allowing a pull request workflow for image promotion
Known gotchas
The image marker annotation must appear on the exact line containing the image tag value; if the YAML is reformatted or the comment moves to a different line, the automation controller will not match it and updates silently stop
ImageUpdateAutomation requires write access to the Git repository; the credential secret must contain a deploy key or token with push permissions to the target branch, separate from the read-only credentials used by the GitRepository source
Flux image automation commits directly to Git with no review gate by default; without configuring push.branch to a non-protected branch and enforcing a pull request, every matching image tag bump is automatically deployed to the cluster
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