CLI shows kubectl REST flags (e.g. `--disable-compression`) that are not supported

[nitishfy]

Checklist:

• I've searched in the docs and FAQ for my answer: https://bit.ly/argocd-faq.
• I've included steps to reproduce the bug.
• I've pasted the output of argocd version.

Describe the bug

Some argocd commands display Kubernetes REST / kubectl flags such as --disable-compression in --help, but passing these flags results in unknown flag errors at runtime. This is confusing for users and suggests functionality that is not actually supported. For eg. #25842

> argocd cluster -h
  Flags:
      --as string                      Username to impersonate for the operation
      --as-group stringArray           Group to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple groups.
      --as-uid string                  UID to impersonate for the operation
      --certificate-authority string   Path to a cert file for the certificate authority
      --client-certificate string      Path to a client certificate file for TLS
      --client-key string              Path to a client key file for TLS
      --cluster string                 The name of the kubeconfig cluster to use
      --context string                 The name of the kubeconfig context to use
      --disable-compression            If true, opt-out of response compression for all requests to the server

❯ argocd cluster --disable-compression list
Error: unknown flag: --disable-compression

To Reproduce

Execute the following command:

❯ argocd cluster --disable-compression list
Error: unknown flag: --disable-compression

Expected behavior

Either:

• The flag should work as advertised, or
• The flag should not be shown in the CLI help output

Version

argocd: v3.2.0-rc4+1963030
  BuildDate: 2025-10-21T19:55:52Z
  GitCommit: 1963030721f03983137116fcff1aeb8e165453eb
  GitTreeState: clean
  GoVersion: go1.25.0  Compiler: gc
  Platform: darwin/arm64

[kwentine]

After some initial orientation and exploration I landed on this initialization logic:

• argo-cd/cmd/argocd/commands/initialize/cmd.go

  Lines 22 to 28 in 4a5d3a7

  	// copy k8s persistent flags into argocd command flags
  	flags.VisitAll(func(flag *pflag.Flag) {
  	// skip Kubernetes server flags since argocd has it's own server flag
  	if flag.Name == "server" {
  	return
  	}
  	cmd.Flags().AddFlag(flag)

It seems that commands not undergoing this initialization like argocd admin do not inherit kubectl flags, e.g. --disable-compression.

[HyejunKoo]

Hi, thanks for the analysis and for pointing out the initialization logic.

I understand that some argocd commands inherit kubectl persistent flags during initialization, which causes unsupported kubectl flags (like --disable-compression) to appear in the CLI help output, even though they fail at runtime.

I’d like to work on fixing this inconsistency, either by removing unsupported kubectl flags from the help output or by aligning the flag initialization behavior across commands.

Please let me know if this sounds reasonable before I proceed.

Thanks!

[nitishfy]

@HyejunKoo go ahead!