Golden Paths And Templates

Why this matters

Golden paths and templates reduce cognitive load and make shipping software safer and faster. As a Platform Engineer, you create paved, opinionated workflows so product teams can spin up services, CI/CD, observability, and security with near-zero friction.

• Spin up a new API with CI, environments, and monitoring in under 30 minutes.
• Bake in guardrails: linting, tests, policies, SBOM, image signing.
• Standardize: consistent repo layout, IaC modules, deployment patterns, and runbooks.

Concept explained simply

A golden path is the recommended, supported way to build and run something (like a service or a data job) on your platform. A template is the concrete starter kit that implements that path (code skeletons, pipelines, infra).

• Golden path: End-to-end workflow (bootstrap, develop, test, deploy, observe, operate).
• Template: The runnable starter (source layout, Dockerfile, CI, IaC, Helm chart, configs).
• Scope: One golden path can have multiple templates (e.g., language variants).

Worked examples

Example 1: Microservice golden path (HTTP API)

• Template contents: repo layout, REST scaffold, Dockerfile, unit test sample, OpenAPI stub, health endpoints.
• CI/CD: build, test, image scan, SBOM, sign, push, deploy to dev; manual approval to prod.
• Infra: namespace, service account, network policy, Helm values, logs and metrics wiring.
• Guardrails: static analysis, dependency audit, policy checks on PR and deploy.

Example 2: Event-driven worker

• Template contents: consumer skeleton, retry/backoff, idempotency helper.
• CI/CD: contract tests against a mock broker; load test job; rollout with canary.
• Infra: topic creation policy, DLQ, autoscaling config, dashboard preset.

Example 3: Data pipeline (batch)

• Template contents: job skeleton, data validation hooks, partitioning pattern.
• CI/CD: unit + data quality checks; schedule deploy; lineage annotation.
• Infra: storage bucket, IAM role, cost-tagging, alert template.

Design a golden path step-by-step

Guardrails to include by default

• Pre-commit: formatting, linting, secrets scanning.
• CI: unit tests, coverage threshold, static analysis, dependency audit.
• Supply chain: SBOM generation, image signing, provenance.
• Policy gates: IaC and cluster policies (deny public ingress by default, required labels).
• Runtime security: minimal base images, non-root user, resource limits.
• Observability: logs, metrics, traces wired; default dashboards and alerts.
• Operational readiness: README, runbook template, SLO placeholders, on-call info fields.

Governance: lifecycle and ownership

• Ownership: each golden path has clear maintainers and a change process.
• Versioning: semantic versions for templates; pin on creation and record in repo.
• Upgrades: offer a diff or codemod script; provide a safe migration path.
• Deprecation: announce, provide overlap period, automated checks for old versions.

Metrics and success signals

• Lead time: idea to first prod deploy with the template.
• Onboarding time: new service bootstrap time.
• Policy violations: trend downward after template adoption.
• Golden path adoption: percent of services created via templates.
• Support load: fewer repetitive how-to tickets.

Exercises

These exercises are also listed below the lesson for easy submission. Do them in order.

Exercise 1 (ex1): Design a new REST API golden path

1. List the template files and directories you would include.
2. Describe the CI/CD stages and required checks.
3. Specify the minimal IaC and runtime security defaults.

Exercise 2 (ex2): Add supply chain guardrails

1. Extend your template to generate an SBOM and sign artifacts.
2. Add a policy gate that blocks deploys missing provenance.
3. Show where these steps run (PR vs. main branch vs. deploy).

Common mistakes and self-check

• Mistake: Overstuffed templates. Fix: Ship minimal viable defaults; add optional modules.
• Mistake: No versioning. Fix: Tag templates and record version in generated repos.
• Mistake: Missing security gates. Fix: Add policy-as-code and enforce in CI/CD.
• Mistake: Hidden discoverability. Fix: Publish in your portal/CLI with clear inputs.
• Mistake: One-time setup only. Fix: Provide upgrade paths and changelogs.

Practical projects

• Build a CLI command that scaffolds a repo from your template with two language options.
• Create a policy bundle that denies public ingress unless explicitly allowed.
• Ship a dashboard preset that auto-binds to any service created from your template.

Mini challenge

In 20 minutes, write a one-page RFC for introducing a "Background Worker" golden path at your company. Include scope, template contents, guardrails, metrics, and a 2-sprint rollout plan.

Who this is for

• Platform engineers creating internal developer platforms.
• Backend engineers standardizing service creation.
• Tech leads aiming for safer, faster delivery.

Prerequisites

• Comfort with CI/CD and containers.
• Basic IaC knowledge.
• Familiarity with service observability concepts.

Learning path

• Before: Platform Engineering mindset and developer experience basics.
• This lesson: Golden paths and templates.
• After: Portal discovery, policy-as-code, and reliability automation.

Next steps

• Turn one common use case into a minimal golden path within your org.
• Pilot with one team; collect time-to-first-deploy and feedback.
• Iterate, version, and announce v1.

Quick Test

Take the short test to check your understanding. Everyone can take it for free; only logged-in users have their progress saved.