How do you handle the module abstraction so the developers don't have to write

.hcl

code? I have used terragrunt in the past so developers only had to provide some inputs using the provided modules but I want to find some better alternatives too.

@Manolis, I used to make use of tfvars to provide an easier interface for Devs. However, for some use cases I’m making use of YAML definition files. The Devs are required to declare the resources in YAML format and all the complexity behind is abstracted.

Cool, a YAML interface would be a nice way to achieve what I need, thank you.

The developers… prefer YAML? 😅

To be honest they probably hate both 😛 But at least YAML is something they already know

You dont even need YAML, you need just a storage like a key value database. Create a webpage that collects values of certain fields into a key-va;ue db and then have a process that reads the values and acts upon them. This will allow you to implement some logic into the value fields and of course governance and security so you dont have to even give them access to the pipelines. Just query them when its done and present a message in the UI or a message into your slack / teams channels.

@Manolis We have an open source project that has a YAML abstraction over terraform & also environment blueprints that might be of interest to you.. https://github.com/cloudknit-io/cloudknit

I've written at length how to create modules that are like "apps" here if it helps any: https://www.contino.io/insights/terraform-best-practices

Mind you that creating a self service portal, doesnt equate going into the realm of Platform Engineering.

Have you looked at CDKTF? You can use it to interface through programming languages.

Great article @Fernando Villalba, thanks for sharing it! However, I think there's a missing link where it says "Here is an example of a repository that uses submodules by Google that you can use as reference". I couldn't find the mentioned example repo

The example is in bullet points after that sentence, sorry for the confusion.

Thanks!

Can you see the submodules there?

Yes

I found this project called Gaia, which creates a UI for your Terraform modules and even runs the

plan

and

apply

for you. I've never used it, but it looks nice. When you give developers a YAML or HCL, at least you keep all variables values as code, but I am not sure if Gaia does it or if it just relies on managing it using the tfstate files