6 GitOps Practices That Actually Work
Source: Dev.to
GitOps: From Promise to Practice
GitOps was pitched as a transformative approach to software delivery and infrastructure management, promising better outcomes across multiple dimensions of organizational performance. However, not all GitOps implementations are created equal.
Research from the State of GitOps report reveals six crucial practices that are statistically related to several meaningful outcomes, including:
- Improved software delivery
- Enhanced reliability
- Elimination of configuration drift
- Easier compliance and audit
These practices form the foundation of successful GitOps adoption, moving beyond superficial implementation to achieve meaningful business outcomes. Organizations missing one or more of these practices were less likely to gain the benefits of GitOps.
1. Declarative Desired State
Unlike imperative approaches that require step‑by‑step instructions, declarative configuration describes the end state you want to achieve, leaving the “how” to automated reconciliation tools. This shift reduces the mental overhead of understanding how a series of changes will affect system state.
What you get from declarative desired state
- A readable change history and audit trail
- Transfer of reconciliation burden to tools
- A self‑documenting target state
2. Human‑Readable Formats
The power of version control for change management only materializes when the configuration files are human‑readable. While this may seem obvious, many organizations undermine their GitOps effectiveness by using binary formats, encoded configurations, or overly complex markup.
What you get from human‑readable formats
- Easier changes that follow the developer‑style workflow
- Faster and easier code reviews
- Clear change history and audit trails from version control
3. Responsive Code Reviews
The speed of code review directly impacts GitOps effectiveness and the likelihood of consistent adoption. Slow reviews create a cascade of adverse effects:
- Teams batch changes to reduce review bottlenecks → larger, more complex batches
- Larger batches increase deployment risk and make issue isolation harder
- Pressure to bypass GitOps (e.g., direct modifications) breaks the audit trail and introduces drift
What you get from responsive code reviews
- Smaller batches with less risk
- Ability to make version control the primary interface for system changes
- Better throughput as people are no longer blocked waiting for a review
4. Version Control as the Foundation
Version control is a fundamental component of GitOps, but its effectiveness depends on the preceding practices (human‑readable declarative files and fast reviews). When used correctly, it provides:
- A source of truth for the desired state of the system
- Familiar tools, access‑control mechanisms, backup, and disaster‑recovery processes
- A complete history of changes and mechanisms to roll back
5. Automatic Pull Model
GitOps shifts from a central orchestrator pushing changes to a distributed set of agents that pull the desired state. This model:
- Scales easily as infrastructure grows (no central list to maintain)
- Aligns with cloud‑native patterns where services are self‑contained and resilient to external dependencies
What you get from automatic pull
- Increased security (no need to expose endpoints)
- Simpler fleet management (no central destination list)
6. Continuous Reconciliation
Continuous reconciliation automatically detects and corrects deviations from the desired state. It is the core of GitOps, yet many organizations have not implemented it. Without it, preventing configuration drift is unlikely, even with the best intentions.
What you get from continuous reconciliation
- Ongoing enforcement of the declared desired state
- Rapid correction of drift, reducing outage risk
- Confidence that the live system matches the version‑controlled source
By adopting these six practices—declarative desired state, human‑readable formats, responsive code reviews, robust version control, automatic pull, and continuous reconciliation—organizations can move from a superficial GitOps implementation to one that delivers real, measurable business value.
Continuous Reconciliation (Summary)
- Confidence that the system remains intended.
- Motivation for all changes to be made through version control.
The research backing these practices provides quantitative evidence that GitOps delivers measurable business value when the proper practices are adopted. Organizations considering GitOps should note:
- Success in GitOps comes not from a perfect initial implementation but from continuous improvement guided by research‑backed practices.
- Teams that start with basic implementations of all six practices achieve better outcomes than those that perfect only one or two practices without adopting the rest.
Why Automation Matters
Automation is the best way to manage complexity in software systems. The six practices of GitOps provide a proven model for doing so.
Learn More
- State of GitOps Report – detailed research findings.
- Quick GitOps Assessment – evaluate your current maturity.
- On‑demand webinar: The New Stack’s “State of GitOps 2025 – Key Findings and What They Mean to You” (recorded July 17, 2025) – watch it here.