feat: add GitOps installation procedures

[gtrivedi88]

Summary

• Add two new procedures for deploying Che using Argo CD (GitOps)
• Update installation overview to include GitOps as a deployment method
• Add "Deploy using GitOps" section to nav (before OpenShift deploy methods)

What changed

Action	File
Created	modules/install/pages/proc_deploying-che-using-gitops.adoc
Created	modules/install/pages/proc_deploying-che-using-gitops-in-a-restricted-environment.adoc
Modified	modules/install/pages/con_installation-overview.adoc
Modified	modules/install/nav.adoc

Why

SME feedback: production deployments use GitOps (Argo CD), not CLI or web console. The GitOps procedure should be the primary installation method.

Two procedures cover:

1. Connected clusters: Argo CD pulling from an external Git repo
2. Air-gapped clusters: Argo CD pulling from an internal Git repo + mirrored registry

Cluster testing

Tested end-to-end on OCP 4.21 ROSA cluster (Jul 2, 2026):

• Single Argo CD Application with SkipDryRunOnMissingResource=true works
• Operator installs via OLM, CheCluster CR applied after CRD is registered
• Dashboard comes up, Phase: Active

Downstream alignment

Content body is identical to downstream devspaces-documentation procedures on the gitops-install-procedures branch. Only metadata wrappers differ (:_content-type: vs :_mod-docs-content-type:, no _{context} suffixes, Antora xrefs vs link: macros).

Test plan

• Antora build succeeds
• nav renders with "Deploy using GitOps" section
• Vale passes on new files

Made with Cursor

[github-actions]

🎊 Navigate the preview: https://6a72e2fc324154cae529237b--eclipse-che-docs-pr.netlify.app 🎊

[github-actions]

Click here to review and test in web IDE:

[btjd]

From what I can tell, the old nav linked installing-che.adoc, which carries a large :page-aliases: list for historical URLs. Now that it's removed from the nav, have you verified that those aliases still resolve correctly in the Antora build, or do they need to be migrated to another page?

[gtrivedi88]

@btjd Thank you, verified this. The installing-che.adoc file was not deleted, only removed from nav.adoc. It still exists at modules/install/pages/installing-che.adoc with all 14 :page-aliases: intact.
Antora resolves :page-aliases: for all pages in the pages/ directory regardless of nav presence, so all historical URL redirects (3-minutes-to-che, quick-starts, installing-che-on-aws, etc.) continue to work. The page becomes an orphan (accessible by URL, not in the sidebar), but aliases still generate redirects.

That said, I'll update the 3 cross-module xrefs that still point to installing-che.adoc (from roles-and-tasks.adoc, che-operator.adoc, and snip_che-supported-platforms.adoc) to point to con_installation-overview.adoc instead, that's the new entry point and it's in the nav. This way readers landing from those links see the page in the sidebar context.

[btjd]

lgtm

[dkwon17]

IMHO I would replace this with:

  {orch-cli} apply -f - <<EOF
  apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
  kind: ClusterRole
  metadata:
    name: argocd-che-installer
  rules:
    - apiGroups: [""]
      resources: ["namespaces"]
      verbs: ["get", "list", "create", "update", "patch"]
    - apiGroups: ["operators.coreos.com"]
      resources: ["subscriptions", "operatorgroups"]
      verbs: ["get", "list", "create", "update", "patch", "delete"]
    - apiGroups: ["org.eclipse.che"]
      resources: ["checlusters"]
      verbs: ["get", "list", "create", "update", "patch", "delete"]
  ---
  apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
  kind: ClusterRoleBinding
  metadata:
    name: argocd-che-installer
  roleRef:
    apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
    kind: ClusterRole
    name: argocd-che-installer
  subjects:
    - kind: ServiceAccount
      name: argocd-application-controller
      namespace: argocd
  EOF

to avoid giving cluster-admin permissions to the service account.

I tested the above on my cluster.

[dkwon17]

Same idea here: https://github.com/eclipse-che/che-docs/pull/3141/changes#r3716242928

[dkwon17]

I got it working on my cluster:

With this git repo: https://github.com/dkwon17/gitops-test

[gtrivedi88]

@dkwon17 I have addressed your suggestions, could you please review?

[dkwon17]

@gtrivedi88 thank you, LGTM