Images not updating despite successful write-back

[anthonymag]

Hi there,

I have been struggling to get Image Updater working all the way through for an Application.

This image is deployed through a chart that I created which wraps another official public chart. Therefore I have to specify the argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/lubelogger.helm.image-tag:

Here is the full manifest:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: lubelogger
  annotations:
    argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/image-list: lubelogger=ghcr.io/hargata/lubelogger:~v1.5
    argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/write-back-method: git
    argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/git-repository: https://github.com/anthonymag/argocd-apps.git
    argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/git-branch: main
    argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/lubelogger.update-strategy: semver
    argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/lubelogger.helm.image-name: lubelogger.image.repository
    argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/lubelogger.helm.image-tag: lubelogger.image.tag
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://anthonymag.github.io/helm-charts/
    targetRevision: 1.2.1
    helm:
      valueFiles:
        - values.yaml
      parameters:
        - name: lubelogger.image.tag
          value: v1.5.1
    chart: lubelogger
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: lubelogger
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      selfHeal: true
      prune: true

I also tried removing the spec.source.helm.parameters section above since I'm not sure if it takes precedence over the image updater file spec, but this didn't help.

This successfully creates this file spec .argocd-source-lubelogger.yaml (at the root of the repo, instead of in templates/ like the application manifests, if that matters):

helm:
  parameters:
  - name: lubelogger.image.tag
    value: v1.5.2
    forcestring: true
  - name: image.name
    value: ghcr.io/hargata/lubelogger
    forcestring: true
  - name: lubelogger.image.repository
    value: ghcr.io/hargata/lubelogger
    forcestring: true

However nothing actually changes in the Application. I'm running v1.5.1 and as that generated file states, it should have updated to v1.5.2.

Here is the log from the image updater:

time="2025-09-21T13:22:30Z" level=info msg="ArgoCD configuration: [apiKind=kubernetes, server=argocd-server.argocd, auth_token=false, insecure=false, grpc_web=false, plaintext=false]"
time="2025-09-21T13:22:30Z" level=info msg="Starting health probe server TCP port=8080"
time="2025-09-21T13:22:30Z" level=info msg="Starting metrics server on TCP port=8081"
time="2025-09-21T13:22:30Z" level=info msg="Warming up image cache"
time="2025-09-21T13:22:30Z" level=info msg="Setting new image to ghcr.io/hargata/lubelogger:v1.5.2" alias=lubelogger application=lubelogger image_name=hargata/lubelogger image_tag=v1.5.1 registry=ghcr.io
time="2025-09-21T13:22:30Z" level=info msg="Successfully updated image 'ghcr.io/hargata/lubelogger:v1.5.1' to 'ghcr.io/hargata/lubelogger:v1.5.2', but pending spec update (dry run=true)" alias=lubelogger application=lubelogger image_name=hargata/lubelogger image_tag=v1.5.1 registry=ghcr.io
time="2025-09-21T13:22:30Z" level=info msg="Dry run - not committing 1 changes to application" application=lubelogger
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="Setting new image to quay.io/argoproj/argocd:v3.1.6" alias=argocd application=argocd image_name=argoproj/argocd image_tag=v3.1.0 registry=quay.io
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="Successfully updated image 'quay.io/argoproj/argocd:v3.1.0' to 'quay.io/argoproj/argocd:v3.1.6', but pending spec update (dry run=true)" alias=argocd application=argocd image_name=argoproj/argocd image_tag=v3.1.0 registry=quay.io
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="Dry run - not committing 1 changes to application" application=argocd
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="Finished cache warm-up, pre-loaded 0 meta data entries from 3 registries"
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="Starting image update cycle, considering 2 annotated application(s) for update"
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="Setting new image to ghcr.io/hargata/lubelogger:v1.5.2" alias=lubelogger application=lubelogger image_name=hargata/lubelogger image_tag=v1.5.1 registry=ghcr.io
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="Successfully updated image 'ghcr.io/hargata/lubelogger:v1.5.1' to 'ghcr.io/hargata/lubelogger:v1.5.2', but pending spec update (dry run=false)" alias=lubelogger application=lubelogger image_name=hargata/lubelogger image_tag=v1.5.1 registry=ghcr.io
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="Committing 1 parameter update(s) for application lubelogger" application=lubelogger
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="Starting configmap/secret informers"
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="Configmap/secret informer synced"
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="Initializing https://github.com/anthonymag/argocd-apps.git to /tmp/git-lubelogger3306763115"
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="configmap informer cancelled"
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="secrets informer cancelled"
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="git fetch origin main --force --prune --depth 1" dir=/tmp/git-lubelogger3306763115 execID=3ac33
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg=Trace args="[git fetch origin main --force --prune --depth 1]" dir=/tmp/git-lubelogger3306763115 operation_name="exec git" time_ms=272.176223
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="git checkout --force main" dir=/tmp/git-lubelogger3306763115 execID=85329
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg=Trace args="[git checkout --force main]" dir=/tmp/git-lubelogger3306763115 operation_name="exec git" time_ms=3.542791
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="git clean -ffdx" dir=/tmp/git-lubelogger3306763115 execID=1585b
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg=Trace args="[git clean -ffdx]" dir=/tmp/git-lubelogger3306763115 operation_name="exec git" time_ms=0.8686740000000001
time="2025-09-21T13:22:34Z" level=info msg="Successfully updated the live application spec" application=lubelogger

anything I'm missing? TIA!

[chengfang]

The parameters section in application manifest should not be needed. The image updater will update the parameters for the target image name and tag. Make sure the image-name, and image-tag are the right ones that match the params used in the public chart.

So the changes are successfully written to the git repo with the right image tag. Looks like argo-cd did not sync up the latest state in the git repo to the deployment. Not sure if it's because the change file .argocd-*.yaml was in a helm chart repo.

Have you tried using multi-source argocd application, where source 1 is the public chart repo (referencing the values file in source 2), and source 2 contains the values file, and have image updater write updates to the values file in source 2?

[anthonymag]

Sorry for the late response!

I had tried removing the parameters section however since you confirmed it's not needed I'll remove it again.

Not sure if it's because the change file .argocd-*.yaml was in a helm chart repo.

To be clear the change file was committed in the argocd application repo, not the helm chart repo: https://github.com/anthonymag/argocd-apps/blob/main/.argocd-source-lubelogger.yaml

Have you tried using multi-source argocd application, where source 1 is the public chart repo (referencing the values file in source 2), and source 2 contains the values file, and have image updater write updates to the values file in source 2?

I think what you're suggesting is I continue using my values file, but instead with the public chart. I can try this although it means I'll have to adjust my values file since using a dependency chart means everything needs to be namespaced under the dependency name, but that's no problem. Let me try that.

[anthonymag]

thanks for the suggestion. I deployed another version of the application using the public chart directly, rather than my own wrapper chart for it.

Like before the image updater creates the .argocd-*.yaml file at the root of the repo, but the image doesn't actually change.

time="2025-10-07T22:44:36Z" level=info msg="Setting new image to ghcr.io/hargata/lubelogger:v1.5.2" alias= application=lubelogger-public image_name=hargata/lubelogger image_tag=v1.5.1 registry=ghcr.io
time="2025-10-07T22:44:36Z" level=info msg="Successfully updated image 'ghcr.io/hargata/lubelogger:v1.5.1' to 'ghcr.io/hargata/lubelogger:v1.5.2', but pending spec update (dry run=true)" alias= application=lubelogger-public image_name=hargata/lubelogger image_tag=v1.5.1 registry=ghcr.io
time="2025-10-07T22:44:36Z" level=info msg="Dry run - not committing 1 changes to application" application=lubelogger-public
t

I did notice that dry run message at the end, but I haven't seen anything in the docs about turning off a dry run. Is there a flag I need to add?