Migrating off Armory Spinnaker
Harness acquired Armory's continuous delivery business in January 2024, and existing customers are being steered toward the Harness platform. If you're on Armory Spinnaker, here are your real options in 2026 — and what actually ports.
Four realistic paths, depending on scope and how much you want to operate:
- Vendor-native continuity → Harness (it acquired Armory; governance + ML verification).
- Kubernetes-only, want GitOps → Argo CD (+ Argo Rollouts).
- Drop the ops burden → a managed pipeline platform.
- Keep what you have → self-manage open-source Spinnaker (mind the declining momentum).
What changed
The Harness acquisition, briefly
The facts that reframe the decision.
Harness bought Armory (Jan 2024)
Harness acquired Armory's continuous delivery assets for ~$7M — well below the $82M+ Armory had raised — taking its IP and talent.
Existing customers supported…
Harness committed to continuity of support for existing Armory implementations, so nothing breaks overnight.
…but steered to Harness
The intent is migration to the Harness platform over time; a standalone managed-Spinnaker product is effectively wound down for new adoption.
Primary sources: TechCrunch · Harness · Halyard deprecation
The paths
Your migration options
| Option | What it is | Effort | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harness | Vendor-native successor that acquired Armory | Medium | Enterprises wanting continuity + governance / ML verification |
| Argo CD | Kubernetes-native GitOps (+ Argo Rollouts) | Medium | Kubernetes-only teams moving to GitOps |
| Managed pipeline CD | Fully managed push CD, no infrastructure | Low | Teams who want to drop the operational burden |
| Self-managed OSS Spinnaker | Keep running Spinnaker yourself | High (ongoing) | Teams with staff and deep Spinnaker investment |
Effort map
What's portable, what you rebuild
Pipelines: rebuild
Spinnaker's pipeline JSON and application/cluster model are Spinnaker-specific. Plan to re-author pipelines in the new tool rather than import them.
Deploy steps: map cleanly
kubectl/Helm applies, image updates and rollout logic translate directly to a pipeline or GitOps model — the mechanics are the same.
Credentials → targets
Cloud and cluster credentials become reusable targets/integrations in the new platform; consolidate and rotate while you're at it.
Approvals & rollback: recreate
Manual gates, promotion between environments and rollback are first-class in modern CD tools — recreate them rather than porting Spinnaker stages.
Lowest-effort path
If the goal is to stop operating CD
Much of Armory's original pitch was making Spinnaker operable for you. If you're migrating anyway, a fully managed platform like Buddy removes the runtime entirely: visual, push-based build-and-deploy to Kubernetes with approvals and rollback, set up in minutes, nothing to host or upgrade. It's push/pipeline CD — not a pull GitOps controller and not a Kayenta-style canary orchestrator — so weigh it against Harness (continuity) and Argo CD (GitOps) by what you actually need.
Common questions
Armory migration — common questions
Is Armory shutting down?
Harness acquired Armory's continuous delivery assets in January 2024 for about $7 million and took on its IP and staff. Harness continues to support existing Armory implementations, but steers customers toward the Harness platform. In practice, the standalone managed-Spinnaker (Armory) product is wound down for new adoption.
Do I have to migrate to Harness?
No. Harness is the vendor-native path and supports existing Armory customers, but it isn't the only option. You can run open-source Spinnaker yourself, move Kubernetes workloads to Argo CD for GitOps, or adopt a fully managed pipeline platform. Choose based on your deployment scope and how much you want to operate.
Is open-source Spinnaker still maintained in 2026?
Yes — Spinnaker still ships releases under the Continuous Delivery Foundation. But contributor activity and release momentum have declined year over year, and its install tool Halyard is deprecated, so factor long-term maintenance risk into any decision to keep self-hosting it.
Are my Spinnaker pipelines portable to another tool?
Not directly. Spinnaker's pipeline JSON and its application/cluster model are specific to Spinnaker, so you rebuild pipelines in the new tool. The underlying deploy steps — kubectl/Helm, target credentials, approval gates — map cleanly onto a pipeline or GitOps model, which is what makes the rebuild tractable.
How hard is the migration, realistically?
Moderate. Expect to re-express each pipeline as build, test and deploy stages, remap cloud and Kubernetes credentials as reusable targets or integrations, and recreate approvals and rollback. Picking a managed platform additionally takes the runtime, upgrades and scaling off your plate; picking Argo CD trades that for a Git-declarative model you operate.
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