What should I use for approval workflows in deployments?

For approval workflows in deployments, the best tool depends on whether you want simple environment gates, full release management, or custom business approvals.

Good default choices

• GitHub Actions / GitLab CI / Azure DevOps approvals

  • Best if your deployments already run in the CI/CD platform.
  • Easy to add manual approval steps before production.
  • Good for small to medium teams.

• Argo CD / Flux with promotion workflows

  • Best for Kubernetes GitOps setups.
  • Approvals are usually handled by pull requests or environment-specific branches.
  • Strong auditability and rollback.

If you need enterprise-grade approvals

• ServiceNow Change Management

  • Best when approvals must fit ITIL / compliance processes.
  • Strong audit trail, CAB-style approvals, policy enforcement.
  • More heavyweight and slower to implement.

• Spinnaker

  • Good for multi-stage deployment pipelines with manual judgment steps.
  • Mature, but can be complex to operate.

If you want a modern policy-based approach

• OPA/Gatekeeper or Kyverno
  • Best for enforcing rules in Kubernetes and preventing non-approved changes.
  • Usually complements CI/CD approval flows rather than replacing them.

My recommendation

• Kubernetes + GitOps: use Argo CD plus pull request approvals
• General CI/CD: use GitHub Actions / GitLab CI built-in manual approvals
• Enterprise compliance: use ServiceNow integrated with your pipeline

If you tell me your stack (GitHub/GitLab/Azure DevOps/Kubernetes/etc.) and whether this is for production-only approvals or full change management, I can recommend a specific setup.