flux bootstrap github: Install Flux via Git

flux bootstrap github installs the Flux controllers and commits their manifests to a GitHub repo so Flux manages itself.

Bootstrap is the first command you run to adopt Flux: it installs the controllers and configures them to sync from a path in your Git repo.

What it does

flux bootstrap github creates (or uses) a GitHub repository, commits the Flux controller manifests under --path, installs them on the cluster, and configures a GitRepository and Kustomization so Flux continuously reconciles itself from Git.

Common usage

Terminal

export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_...
flux bootstrap github \
  --owner=acme \
  --repository=fleet-infra \
  --branch=main \
  --path=clusters/production \
  --personal

Options

Flag	What it does
--owner <org/user>	GitHub owner of the repo
--repository <name>	Repository name (created if missing)
--path <dir>	Directory in the repo for this cluster
--personal	Repo belongs to a user account, not an org
--branch <name>	Git branch to commit to
--token-auth	Use HTTPS token auth instead of deploy-key SSH

In CI

Bootstrap is idempotent: running it again reconciles drift in the Flux install, so a pipeline can run it on every change. The GITHUB_TOKEN needs repo scope to create the deploy key (or the repo, with --personal). Use --path per cluster to keep environments separate.

Common errors in CI

"✗ failed to get Git repository ...: 401 Bad credentials" means GITHUB_TOKEN is missing or lacks scope. "✗ install failed: ... timed out waiting for condition" means the controllers did not become ready; check cluster access and image pulls. "the server could not find the requested resource" can mean the kubeconfig points at the wrong cluster.