| name | platform-engineering |
| description | Infrastructure as code, CI/CD, container orchestration, service networking — methodology and reference patterns for building and operating internal developer platforms. |
| author | Hermes Profiles |
| license | MIT |
Platform Engineering
Core methodology and reference library for platform engineering work. This skill does not execute operations itself — it provides the frameworks, patterns, and reference material that a platform-engineer profile loads on demand.
When to Load
Load this skill when the task involves:
| Trigger | What's Needed |
|---|
| Design a CI/CD pipeline | Pipeline structure, GitOps sync strategies, release automation |
| Infrastructure as code plan | Terraform/OpenTofu module patterns, state management, Pulumi/Ansible patterns |
| Container orchestration design | K8s pod lifecycle, Helm chart conventions, Kustomize overlays, Docker Compose |
| Service networking / mesh | Traefik/nginx/Caddy config, Tailscale/Headscale ACL, WireGuard, service mesh |
| Observability strategy | Prometheus rules, Grafana dashboards-as-code, Loki logging, tracing |
| Secret management design | Vault, SOPS, External Secrets Operator patterns |
| Cloud architecture assessment | Multi-cloud patterns, provider foundations, cost governance |
| Deployment pipeline review | End-to-end delivery pipeline audit, release engineering patterns |
Loading Order
skill_view('platform-engineering') # This — methodology index
skill_view('artifact-pyramids') # Output contract
skill_view('docker-management') # Container lifecycle (if needed)
skill_view('traefik') # Reverse proxy (if needed)
skill_view('tailscale') # Mesh networking (if needed)
skill_view('implementation-planning') # Work breakdown (if needed)
Then load domain-specific references from this skill:
skill_view('platform-engineering', file_path='references/ci-cd-pipelines.md')
skill_view('platform-engineering', file_path='references/infrastructure-as-code.md')
# ... etc per domain
Reference Files
| Reference | Purpose |
|---|
references/ci-cd-pipelines.md | GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Forgejo CI, Jenkins, CircleCI; GitOps with ArgoCD/Flux; release automation |
references/container-orchestration.md | K8s/k3s, Helm chart conventions, Kustomize overlays, RBAC patterns, Docker Compose production patterns |
references/infrastructure-as-code.md | Terraform/OpenTofu module design, state backends, Pulumi project structure, Ansible roles, CloudFormation/CDK |
references/service-networking.md | Reverse proxy config (Traefik, nginx, Caddy), Tailscale/Headscale ACL, WireGuard topology, service mesh (Istio, Cilium) |
references/observability.md | Prometheus recording rules/alerting, Grafana dashboards-as-code, Loki log aggregation, OpenTelemetry tracing |
references/secret-management.md | HashiCorp Vault auth/policies, SOPS/age encryption in Git, External Secrets Operator, Sealed Secrets |
references/cloud-platforms.md | AWS/GCP/Azure foundational services, multi-cloud design, cost governance, provider abstraction |
references/automation-languages.md | Go CLI patterns, Python SDK integration, Bash bootstrap/conventions for platform tooling |
references/release-engineering.md | Container image lifecycle, artifact versioning strategies, release gate checklists, Helm chart promotion |
Output Contract
The profile using this skill produces artifact pyramids. The response to any caller is the absolute path to 00-index.md. See artifact-pyramids skill for the specification.
Design Principles
- The platform is a product. Internal developers are your customers. Their productivity, satisfaction, and cognitive load are the primary metrics.
- Golden paths, not golden cages. Provide paved roads for common workflows but allow escape hatches. Make the right thing easy, not the wrong thing impossible.
- Reduce cognitive load. Abstract infrastructure complexity. Developers should not need to understand Kubernetes internals or Terraform state management to deploy their service.
- Everything as code. Infrastructure, configuration, pipelines, and policies are version-controlled, reviewed, and reproducible. Git is the single source of truth.
- Self-service over tickets. Every manual handoff between teams is a bottleneck. If a developer needs another team to deploy, the platform is incomplete.
- Automation is the default. If a process can be automated, it must be. Manual operations are toil — tax on the organization.
- Observability is infrastructure. Logs, metrics, traces, and dashboards are platform contract, not optional extras. Every service gets them by default.
- Security is built in, not bolted on. Supply chain security, secret management, vulnerability scanning, and policy enforcement are platform responsibilities.
- API-first design. Everything the platform does should be accessible via API — enabling automation, self-service portals, and CLI tools.
Related Skills
artifact-pyramids — output contract specificationdocker-management — container lifecycle and Composetraefik — reverse proxy and ingress configurationtailscale — mesh networking and ACL policiesimplementation-planning — work breakdown and dependency orderingmermaid-diagrams — architecture diagram generationsite-reliability-engineering — sister domain (post-deployment reliability)
