Install akuity with Homebrew Cask

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• akuity

Project history

Akuity grew out of the Argo ecosystem. Akuity says it was founded by Argo co-creators Hong Wang, Jesse Suen, and Alexander Matyushentsev, tracing the lineage through Applatix open-sourcing Argo in 2017, Intuit acquiring Applatix in 2018, and Argo reaching CNCF graduation in 2022.

The CLI became especially important as Akuity added declarative management to its hosted Argo CD platform. The changelog records akuity argocd apply for declarative Argo CD instance management in early 2023, broader apply and diff workflows in May 2023, and declarative management of accounts, repository credentials, secrets, and clusters in June 2023.

Adoption history

Adoption is tied to Akuity Platform usage rather than independent open-source uptake. The official CLI reference lists command families for Argo CD instances and clusters, Kargo resources, organizations, login/logout, version checks, and identity checks, making the local binary the automation surface for a hosted control plane.

By May 2023, Akuity described a workflow where users create Kubernetes-like manifests, pass them to the akuity CLI, and get a production-ready Argo CD instance without managing the hosting infrastructure. The same blog post describes using the CLI to provision an agent and connect managed clusters.

How it is used

Typical usage begins with akuity login and akuity config set --organization-name. Declarative workflows then use commands such as akuity argocd apply, akuity argocd diff, cluster agent manifest generation, and Kargo apply/diff commands depending on the resource family.

In package-nerd terms, the CLI is the local handle for remote GitOps infrastructure: shell commands produce changes to Akuity-managed Argo CD instances, Kargo resources, cluster agents, and organization-scoped resources.

Why package nerds care

Akuity CLI is a package-manager expression of a managed GitOps control plane. It is interesting because the package is not just a local helper: it is the automation surface for operating hosted Argo CD and related delivery infrastructure.

For package maintainers, it shows a commercial cloud tool retaining classic CLI ergonomics: a single executable, generated command reference, login state, and shell-friendly declarative apply and diff workflows.

Timeline

• 2017: Applatix open-sourced the Argo project, according to Akuity.
• 2018: Intuit acquired Applatix, according to Akuity.
• 2022: Argo graduated from the CNCF, according to Akuity.
• 2023-02-28: Akuity changelog records akuity argocd apply for declarative Argo CD instance management.
• 2023-05-12: Akuity changelog records declarative management using akuity argocd apply and diff commands.
• 2023-06-28: Akuity changelog records broader declarative management of Argo CD instance settings.

Related projects

• Related projects include Argo CD, the Argo project family, Kubernetes, GitOps workflows, Kargo, Helm, Helmfile, Tanka, and managed control-plane tooling.

Sources

• https://akuity.io/blog/akuity-may-2023-update
• https://akuity.io/company
• https://docs.akuity.io/akuity-portal/reference/cli/
• https://docs.akuity.io/changelog/cloud/
• https://docs.akuity.io/tutorials/declarative-akuity-platform/