Harness Infrastructure as Code

Terraform, CloudFormation, and Pulumi analysis. Module structure, state management, drift prevention, and security posture for infrastructure definitions.

When to Use

• When reviewing or designing Terraform, CloudFormation, or Pulumi configurations
• When auditing IaC module structure, naming conventions, and state management
• On PRs that modify infrastructure definitions or add new cloud resources
• NOT for CI/CD pipeline configuration (use harness-deployment)
• NOT for container orchestration (use harness-containerization)
• NOT for application-level security (use harness-security-review)

Process

Phase 1: DETECT -- Identify IaC Tool and Structure

1. Detect IaC tooling. Scan the project for infrastructure definitions:

   • *.tf

     files -- Terraform (HCL)

   • terraform/

     directory with

     .terraform.lock.hcl

   • cloudformation/

     ,

     *.template.yaml

     ,

     *.template.json

     -- CloudFormation

   • Pulumi.yaml

     ,

     Pulumi.*.yaml

     -- Pulumi

   • cdk.json

     ,

     cdk.out/

     -- AWS CDK

   • infrastructure/

     ,

     infra/

     -- common IaC directories

2. Identify provider and backend. Parse configuration for:

   • Cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure) and their versions
   • State backend (S3, GCS, Azure Blob, Terraform Cloud, local)
   • Provider authentication method (environment variables, profiles, OIDC)
   • Lock file presence and provider version constraints

3. Map module structure. Build a dependency tree of modules:

   • Root modules and their child module references
   • Module source types (local path, registry, git)
   • Module versioning (pinned vs. unpinned)
   • Input variables and output values per module
   • Shared modules used across multiple root configurations

4. Detect environment separation. Identify how environments are managed:

   • Workspaces (Terraform workspaces)
   • Directory-per-environment (

     environments/dev/

     ,

     environments/prod/

     )
   • Variable files per environment (

     terraform.tfvars

     ,

     prod.tfvars

     )
   • Backend configuration per environment

5. Present detection summary:

   IaC Detection:
     Tool: Terraform v1.7
     Provider: AWS (us-east-1, us-west-2)
     Backend: S3 with DynamoDB locking
     Modules: 8 local, 3 registry
     Environments: dev, staging, prod (directory-per-env)
     State files: 3 (one per environment)
   

Phase 2: ANALYZE -- Evaluate Patterns and Anti-Patterns

1. Check state management. Verify state is properly configured:

   • Remote backend with locking (not local state for shared infrastructure)
   • State encryption at rest enabled
   • State file does not contain secrets in plain text
   • State is segmented per environment (no single state file for all environments)
   • Backend configuration uses variables, not hardcoded values

2. Evaluate module design. Check modules for:

   • Single responsibility (one module does one thing)
   • Input validation (variable validation blocks or type constraints)
   • Output completeness (downstream consumers can get what they need)
   • No hardcoded values that should be variables
   • README or documentation for each module
   • Consistent naming conventions across modules

3. Check resource naming and tagging. Verify:

   • Resources follow a consistent naming convention (e.g.,

     {project}-{env}-{resource}

     )
   • Required tags are present on all taggable resources (environment, team, cost-center)
   • Tag values are consistent (no mix of "prod" and "production")
   • Names do not contain environment-specific values in shared modules

4. Analyze dependency management. Check for:

   • Provider version constraints (required_providers block)
   • Module version pinning (exact version or range)
   • Lock file committed to version control
   • No circular dependencies between modules
   • Implicit dependencies are made explicit with depends_on where needed

5. Check for common anti-patterns:

   • Monolithic root modules (everything in one configuration)
   • Hardcoded AMI IDs, account numbers, or region values
   • Resources created outside of IaC (drift risk)
   • Overly permissive IAM policies (wildcards on actions or resources)
   • Missing lifecycle rules (prevent_destroy on critical resources)

Phase 3: DESIGN -- Recommend Structure and Patterns

1. Recommend module decomposition. If monolithic configurations are detected:

   • Propose a module hierarchy based on service boundaries
   • Separate networking, compute, storage, and security into distinct modules
   • Design shared modules for common patterns (e.g., tagged S3 bucket, VPC)
   • Provide module interface design (inputs, outputs)

2. Design state management strategy. Recommend:

   • One state file per environment per service
   • Remote backend with encryption and locking
   • State import plan for any resources created outside IaC
   • Cross-state data sharing via

     terraform_remote_state

     or SSM parameters

3. Recommend drift detection workflow. Design a process to catch manual changes:

   • Scheduled

     terraform plan

     in CI to detect drift
   • Alert on any planned changes that were not initiated by a PR
   • Runbook for reconciling detected drift (import vs. revert)
   • Tag resources as IaC-managed for auditability

4. Design environment promotion. Recommend a workflow for infrastructure changes:

   • Changes applied to dev first, then promoted to staging, then production
   • Variable files per environment with appropriate overrides
   • Approval gates before production applies
   • Plan output reviewed as part of PR process

5. Recommend security hardening. For each provider:

   • Least-privilege IAM roles for IaC execution
   • No inline policies (use managed policies or policy documents)
   • Encryption enabled by default on all storage resources
   • Network security groups with explicit deny rules
   • Sensitive variables marked with

     sensitive = true

Phase 4: VALIDATE -- Verify Configuration Correctness

1. Run static analysis. Execute available validation tools:

   • Terraform:

     terraform validate

     ,

     terraform fmt -check

   • CloudFormation:

     cfn-lint

     or

     aws cloudformation validate-template

   • Pulumi: type checking via the chosen language runtime
   • CDK:

     cdk synth

     to verify template generation
   • General:

     tflint

     ,

     checkov

     , or

     tfsec

     for security checks

2. Verify variable completeness. For each root module:

   • All declared variables have descriptions
   • Required variables have no default values
   • Optional variables have sensible defaults
   • Variable types are specific (not

     any

     )
   • Validation blocks exist for constrained values (e.g., allowed regions)

3. Check plan safety. If a plan output is available:

   • No unexpected resource deletions
   • No changes to resources marked with

     prevent_destroy

   • Replacements are expected (not caused by force-new arguments)
   • Plan matches the intended change described in the PR

4. Verify security posture. Run security-focused checks:

   • No public S3 buckets or storage accounts
   • No security groups allowing 0.0.0.0/0 on sensitive ports
   • Encryption enabled on RDS, EBS, S3, and other storage
   • IAM policies follow least privilege
   • No credentials or secrets in variable defaults or outputs

5. Generate validation report:

   IaC Validation: [PASS/WARN/FAIL]
   
   Format check: PASS (all files formatted)
   Validate: PASS (no syntax errors)
   Security scan: WARN (2 findings)
     - modules/storage/main.tf: S3 bucket missing server-side encryption
     - modules/network/main.tf: security group allows 0.0.0.0/0 on port 22
   Module design: WARN (3 modules missing input validation)
   State management: PASS (remote backend with locking)
   
   Recommendations:
     1. Add aws_s3_bucket_server_side_encryption_configuration resource
     2. Restrict SSH access to VPN CIDR range
     3. Add variable validation blocks to network, compute, and storage modules
   

Harness Integration

• harness skill run harness-infrastructure-as-code

  -- Primary invocation for IaC analysis.

• harness validate

  -- Run after configuration changes to verify project health.

• harness check-deps

  -- Verify IaC tool dependencies are installed.

• emit_interaction

  -- Present design recommendations and gather decisions on module structure.

Success Criteria

• IaC tooling, provider, and backend are correctly identified
• Module structure is mapped with dependency relationships
• State management is verified as remote, encrypted, and locked
• Resource naming and tagging follow consistent conventions
• Security posture is evaluated with no critical findings unaddressed
• Static analysis tools pass without errors

Examples

Example: Terraform AWS Multi-Environment Setup

Phase 1: DETECT
  Tool: Terraform v1.6.4
  Provider: AWS (hashicorp/aws ~> 5.0)
  Backend: S3 (us-east-1) with DynamoDB locking
  Modules: 5 local (vpc, ecs, rds, s3, iam), 2 registry (datadog, cloudwatch)
  Environments: dev, staging, prod (directory-per-env with shared modules)

Phase 2: ANALYZE
  State management: PASS (remote, encrypted, locked, per-env)
  Module design: WARN
    - modules/ecs has 450 lines -- recommend splitting into ecs-cluster
      and ecs-service modules
    - modules/rds missing variable validation for instance_class
  Naming: PASS (consistent {project}-{env}-{resource} pattern)
  Tags: WARN (cost-center tag missing on 3 resources)
  Anti-patterns: 1 hardcoded AMI in modules/ecs/main.tf

Phase 3: DESIGN
  1. Split modules/ecs into ecs-cluster and ecs-service
  2. Add data source for AMI lookup instead of hardcoded value
  3. Add variable validation: instance_class must be db.t3.* or db.r6g.*
  4. Add cost-center tag to default_tags in provider configuration
  5. Add scheduled terraform plan for drift detection in CI

Phase 4: VALIDATE
  terraform fmt: PASS
  terraform validate: PASS
  tfsec: WARN (2 findings -- see above)
  checkov: PASS
  Result: WARN -- 5 improvements recommended, no blocking issues

Example: CloudFormation with CDK

Phase 1: DETECT
  Tool: AWS CDK v2.120 (TypeScript)
  Provider: AWS (us-west-2)
  Backend: CloudFormation (managed by CDK)
  Stacks: 3 (NetworkStack, ComputeStack, StorageStack)
  Environments: dev and prod via CDK context

Phase 2: ANALYZE
  Stack design: PASS (clean separation by concern)
  Cross-stack references: PASS (using CfnOutput and Fn::ImportValue)
  Security: WARN
    - ComputeStack: EC2 instance has public IP and open SSH
    - StorageStack: DynamoDB table missing point-in-time recovery
  CDK constructs: Using L2 constructs (good -- higher abstraction)

Phase 3: DESIGN
  1. Add bastion host pattern instead of direct SSH to EC2
  2. Enable point-in-time recovery on DynamoDB table
  3. Add cdk-nag for automated security checks in synthesis
  4. Add stack-level tags via Tags.of(stack).add()

Phase 4: VALIDATE
  cdk synth: PASS (3 templates generated)
  cfn-lint: PASS (all templates valid)
  Security: WARN (2 findings)
  Result: WARN -- 2 security improvements needed

Rationalizations to Reject

terraform apply

terraform init

~> 5.0

terraform apply

Gates

• No local state for shared infrastructure. Terraform configurations managing shared resources must use a remote backend with locking. Local state is blocking for any non-experimental configuration.
• No unpinned provider versions. Provider version constraints must be explicit. Using

  >=

  without an upper bound or omitting version constraints entirely is a blocking finding.
• No public access to sensitive resources. S3 buckets, databases, or storage accounts with public access enabled are blocking security findings.
• No credentials in IaC files. Hardcoded access keys, passwords, or tokens in Terraform variables, CloudFormation parameters, or Pulumi configuration are blocking findings.

Escalation

• When state is corrupted or diverged: Do not attempt automatic recovery. Report the state of divergence, recommend

  terraform state pull

  for backup, and advise manual reconciliation with a plan review before any apply.
• When resources exist outside IaC management: Recommend a phased import strategy. Provide

  terraform import

  commands for each resource and note that import does not generate configuration -- the HCL must be written manually.
• When module versions are significantly outdated: Present the version gap and changelog summary. If breaking changes exist, recommend a separate PR for the upgrade with a plan review before applying.
• When IaC tool version conflicts exist between team members: Recommend pinning the tool version in

  .terraform-version

  (tfenv) or

  Pulumi.yaml

  and adding version checks to CI.