infrastructure-as-code_skill

Overview

This skill provides a compact, production-oriented Infrastructure as Code (IaC) reference using Terraform to provision, manage, and destroy cloud resources. It captures core commands, essential patterns (resources, modules, remote state), and a critical checklist to start reproducible, version-controlled infrastructure quickly. The guidance emphasizes safety, testing, and integration with CI/CD and monitoring systems.

How this skill works

The skill outlines the Terraform workflow: init, plan, apply, validate, format, and destroy, plus workspace and state operations for environment separation and collaboration. It details common patterns like basic resource blocks, module consumption, and S3-backed remote state with locking. The content also covers testing and automation points—linting, Terratest, drift detection—and practical CI/CD integration patterns.

When to use it

• Bootstrapping new cloud infrastructure with repeatability and version control
• Managing multiple environments using workspaces or separate state backends
• Modularizing reusable network, compute, and platform components
• Automating drift detection, testing, and CI/CD deployments
• Enforcing security and compliance via state encryption and linters

Best practices

• Pin provider and module versions to prevent unexpected upgrades
• Enable remote state with encryption and locking (e.g., S3 + DynamoDB)
• Use variables for environment-specific values and tag resources consistently
• Run terraform fmt and terraform validate in CI before merging
• Implement automated tests (Terratest) and linting (TFLint/Checkov)
• Never commit secrets; use secret managers and .gitignore for local files

Example use cases

• Create a VPC module consumed by multiple environments with parameterized CIDRs
• Deploy a web tier with autoscaling instances and tagged resources via a basic resource block
• Store Terraform state in S3 with DynamoDB locks to support team collaboration
• Automate daily drift detection and create scheduled remediation jobs
• Integrate Terraform runs into GitHub Actions or GitLab CI for gated applies