infrastructure-as-code

Provides Infrastructure as Code best practices for Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation, and OpenTofu. Use when provisioning infrastructure, writing IaC modules, managing cloud resources, scanning for misconfigurations, or when user mentions 'terraform', 'pulumi', 'cloudformation', 'IaC', 'opentofu', 'infrastructure', 'tfsec', 'checkov', 'drift'.

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Repository: Tibsfox/gsd-skill-creator
Last source activity: April 14, 2026 at 07:57
Detected SKILL.md language: English
Stars: 69
Forks: 9

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Infrastructure as Code

Best practices for managing cloud infrastructure declaratively with Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation, and OpenTofu. Covers module composition, state management, security scanning, and drift prevention.

IaC Tool Comparison

Choose the right tool based on team skills, cloud strategy, and operational requirements.

Tool

Language

State Management

Multi-Cloud

Learning Curve

Ecosystem

Terraform

HCL

Remote backend (S3, GCS, etc.)

Excellent

Medium

Largest provider ecosystem

OpenTofu

HCL

Same as Terraform

Excellent

Medium

Fork-compatible with Terraform

Pulumi

TypeScript, Python, Go, C#

Pulumi Cloud or self-managed

Excellent

Low for developers

Growing, SDK-based

CloudFormation

YAML/JSON

AWS-managed

AWS only

Medium

Native AWS integration

CDK

TypeScript, Python, Java, Go

AWS-managed (synths to CFN)

AWS only

Low for developers

Leverages CFN resources

Decision Factor

Recommendation

Multi-cloud required

Terraform or Pulumi

AWS-only shop

CloudFormation or CDK

Team knows TypeScript

Pulumi or CDK

Need open-source license

OpenTofu

Existing Terraform codebase

Stay Terraform or migrate to OpenTofu

Complex logic and loops

Pulumi (general-purpose language)

State Management Patterns

State is the source of truth for what IaC has provisioned. Mismanaging state causes orphaned resources, duplicate deployments, and data loss.

+------------------+ +------------------+ +------------------+ | Developer CLI | ----> | Remote Backend | <---- | CI/CD Pipeline | +------------------+ +------------------+ +------------------+ | - S3 + DynamoDB | | - GCS + Lock | | - Terraform Cloud| +------------------+

Infrastructure as Code

IaC Tool Comparison

Choose the right tool based on team skills, cloud strategy, and operational requirements.

Tool

Language

State Management

Multi-Cloud

Learning Curve

Ecosystem

Terraform

HCL

Remote backend (S3, GCS, etc.)

Excellent

Medium

Largest provider ecosystem

OpenTofu

HCL

Same as Terraform

Excellent

Medium

Fork-compatible with Terraform

Pulumi

TypeScript, Python, Go, C#

Pulumi Cloud or self-managed

Excellent

Low for developers

Growing, SDK-based

CloudFormation

YAML/JSON

AWS-managed

AWS only

Medium

Native AWS integration

CDK

TypeScript, Python, Java, Go

AWS-managed (synths to CFN)

AWS only

Low for developers

Leverages CFN resources

Decision Factor

Recommendation

Multi-cloud required

Terraform or Pulumi

AWS-only shop

CloudFormation or CDK

Team knows TypeScript

Pulumi or CDK

Need open-source license

OpenTofu

Existing Terraform codebase

Stay Terraform or migrate to OpenTofu

Complex logic and loops

Pulumi (general-purpose language)

State Management Patterns

State is the source of truth for what IaC has provisioned. Mismanaging state causes orphaned resources, duplicate deployments, and data loss.

# modules/vpc/variables.tf variable "name" { description = "Name prefix for all VPC resources" type = string validation { condition = length(var.name) <= 24 error_message = "Name must be 24 characters or fewer." } } variable "cidr_block" { description = "CIDR block for the VPC" type = string default = "10.0.0.0/16" validation { condition = can(cidrhost(var.cidr_block, 0)) error_message = "Must be a valid CIDR block." } } variable "availability_zones" { type = list(string) } variable "tags" { type = map(string) default = {} } # modules/vpc/main.tf resource "aws_vpc" "this" { cidr_block = var.cidr_block enable_dns_hostnames = true enable_dns_support = true tags = merge(var.tags, { Name = "${var.name}-vpc" }) } resource "aws_subnet" "public" { count = length(var.availability_zones) vpc_id = aws_vpc.this.id cidr_block = cidrsubnet(var.cidr_block, 8, count.index) availability_zone = var.availability_zones[count.index] tags = merge(var.tags, { Name = "${var.name}-public-${var.availability_zones[count.index]}" Tier = "public" }) } resource "aws_subnet" "private" { count = length(var.availability_zones) vpc_id = aws_vpc.this.id cidr_block = cidrsubnet(var.cidr_block, 8, count.index + length(var.availability_zones)) availability_zone = var.availability_zones[count.index] tags = merge(var.tags, { Name = "${var.name}-private-${var.availability_zones[count.index]}" Tier = "private" }) } # modules/vpc/outputs.tf output "vpc_id" { value = aws_vpc.this.id } output "public_subnet_ids" { value = aws_subnet.public[*].id } output "private_subnet_ids" { value = aws_subnet.private[*].id } # environments/prod/main.tf -- Consuming the module module "vpc" { source = "git::https://github.com/myorg/terraform-modules.git//vpc?ref=v2.1.0" name = "prod" cidr_block = "10.0.0.0/16" availability_zones = ["us-east-1a", "us-east-1b", "us-east-1c"] tags = { Environment = "production", Team = "platform" } }

name	infrastructure-as-code
description	Provides Infrastructure as Code best practices for Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation, and OpenTofu. Use when provisioning infrastructure, writing IaC modules, managing cloud resources, scanning for misconfigurations, or when user mentions 'terraform', 'pulumi', 'cloudformation', 'IaC', 'opentofu', 'infrastructure', 'tfsec', 'checkov', 'drift'.
type	skill
category	patterns
status	stable
origin	tibsfox
modified	false
first_seen	"2026-02-07T00:00:00.000Z"
first_path	examples/infrastructure-as-code/SKILL.md
superseded_by	null

name	infrastructure-as-code
description	Provides Infrastructure as Code best practices for Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation, and OpenTofu. Use when provisioning infrastructure, writing IaC modules, managing cloud resources, scanning for misconfigurations, or when user mentions 'terraform', 'pulumi', 'cloudformation', 'IaC', 'opentofu', 'infrastructure', 'tfsec', 'checkov', 'drift'.
type	skill
category	patterns
status	stable
origin	tibsfox
modified	false
first_seen	"2026-02-07T00:00:00.000Z"
first_path	examples/infrastructure-as-code/SKILL.md
superseded_by	null

Pattern	When to Use	Implementation
Single state file	Small projects, <20 resources	One backend config
State per environment	Separate dev/staging/prod	Workspace or directory per env
State per component	Large infra, team boundaries	Separate root modules with data sources
Hierarchical state	Complex multi-team orgs	Layers: network -> compute -> app

Versioning Strategy	Source Format	When to Use
Git tag	`git::https://...?ref=v2.1.0`	Internal modules, full control
Terraform Registry	`source = "hashicorp/consul/aws"` version = `"0.1.0"`	Public modules
Local path	`source = "../../modules/vpc"`	Monorepo, development
S3/GCS archive	`source = "s3::https://..."`	Air-gapped environments

Tool	Focus	Language	Integration
Checkov	Multi-framework (TF, CFN, K8s, Helm)	Python	CLI, CI/CD, IDE
tfsec	Terraform-specific, fast	Go	CLI, CI/CD, pre-commit
Terrascan	Policy-as-code (OPA/Rego)	Go	CLI, CI/CD
Snyk IaC	Commercial, wide coverage	SaaS	CLI, CI/CD, IDE

infrastructure-as-code

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