info:A tutorial using Flux with Project Access Tokens
---
# Tutorial: Set up Flux for GitOps **(FREE)**
This tutorial teaches you how to set up Flux for GitOps. You'll set up a sample project,
complete a bootstrap Flux installation, and authenticate your installation with a project access token.
You can find the fully configured tutorial project [in this GitLab repository](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/configure/examples/flux/flux-config). It works in conjunction with [this repository](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/configure/examples/flux/web-app-manifests/-/tree/main), which contains the example Kubernetes manifests.
To set up Flux with a project access token:
1.[Create the Flux repository](#create-the-flux-repository)
1.[Create the Kubernetes manifest repository](#create-the-kubernetes-manifest-repository)
1.[Configure Flux to sync your manifests](#configure-flux-to-sync-your-manifests)
1.[Verify your configuration](#verify-your-configuration)
Prerequisites:
- On GitLab SaaS, you must have the Premium or Ultimate tier. On self-managed instances, you can have any tier.
- You must have a Kubernetes cluster running.
## Create the Flux repository
To start, create a Git repository, install Flux, and authenticate Flux with your repo:
1. Make sure your `kubectl` is configured to access your cluster.
1.[Install the Flux CLI](https://fluxcd.io/flux/installation/#install-the-flux-cli).
1. In GitLab, create a new empty project called `flux-config`.
1. In the `flux-config` project, create a [project access token](../../../project/settings/project_access_tokens.md#create-a-project-access-token) with the following settings:
- From the **Select a role** dropdown list, select **Maintainer**.
- Under **Select scopes**, select the **API** and **write_repository** checkboxes.
Name the project token `flux-project-access-token`.
1. From your shell, export a `GITLAB_TOKEN` environment variable with the value of your project access token.
For example, `export GITLAB_TOKEN=<flux-project-access-token>`.
1. Run the `bootstrap` command. The exact command depends on whether you are
creating the Flux repository under a GitLab user, group, or subgroup. For more information,
see the [Flux bootstrap documentation](https://fluxcd.io/flux/installation/#gitlab-and-gitlab-enterprise).
In this tutorial, you're working with a public project in a subgroup. The bootstrap command looks like this:
```shell
flux bootstrap gitlab \
--owner=gitlab-org/configure/examples/flux \
--repository=flux-config \
--branch=main \
--path=clusters/my-cluster
```
This command installs Flux on the Kubernetes cluster and configures it to manage itself from the repository `flux-config`.
Great work! You now have a repository, a project access token, and a Flux bootstrap installation authenticated to your repo. Any updates to your repo are automatically synced to the cluster.
## Create the Kubernetes manifest repository
Next, create a repository for your Kubernetes manifests:
1. In GitLab, create a new repository called `web-app-manifests`.
1. Add a file to `web-app-manifests` named `nginx-deployment.yaml` with the following contents:
```yaml
apiVersion:apps/v1
kind:Deployment
metadata:
name:nginx-deployment
labels:
app:nginx
spec:
replicas:3
selector:
matchLabels:
app:nginx
template:
metadata:
labels:
app:nginx
spec:
containers:
-name:nginx
image:nginx:1.14.2
ports:
-containerPort:80
```
1. In the new repository, [create a deploy token](../../../project/deploy_tokens/index.md#create-a-deploy-token) with only the **read_repository** scope.
1. Store your deploy token username and password somewhere safe.
1. In Flux CLI, create a secret with your deploy token and point the secret to the new repository. For example:
