Data IaC Skill

Version: 1.0 Stack: Terraform, AWS CDK, CloudFormation

Infrastructure without code is infrastructure without memory. Manual console changes create drift that nobody notices until a deploy fails. Hardcoded values mean dev and prod diverge silently. Local state files mean one laptop death away from losing track of what's deployed.

IaC makes infrastructure reviewable, repeatable, and recoverable — the same code for every environment means what works in staging works in prod. These patterns aren't about tidiness. They're about being able to recover when things go wrong, which they always do.

Scope and Boundaries

This skill covers:

Terraform module patterns
AWS CDK constructs
State management
Environment promotion
Secret handling
Tagging and cost allocation

Defers to other skills:

security: IAM policies, encryption settings
data-aws: Service-specific configurations

Use this skill when: Writing infrastructure code for data systems.

Core Principles

Modules for Reuse — Extract patterns into versioned modules.
Environment Parity — Dev, staging, prod use same code, different vars.
Least Privilege — IAM grants minimum required access.
State is Sacred — Remote state, locking, never manual edits.
Tag Everything — Cost allocation, ownership, environment.

Patterns

Terraform Module Structure

modules/
├── data-lake/
│   ├── main.tf
│   ├── variables.tf
│   ├── outputs.tf
│   └── README.md
└── glue-job/
    ├── main.tf
    ├── variables.tf
    └── outputs.tf

environments/
├── dev/
│   ├── main.tf
│   └── terraform.tfvars
├── staging/
│   └── ...
└── prod/
    └── ...

Required Tags

locals {
  common_tags = {
    Environment = var.environment
    Project     = var.project_name
    ManagedBy   = "terraform"
    Owner       = var.owner_email
    CostCenter  = var.cost_center
  }
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "data_lake" {
  bucket = "${var.project_name}-${var.environment}-data-lake"
  tags   = local.common_tags
}

CDK Stack Pattern

import * as cdk from 'aws-cdk-lib';
import * as s3 from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-s3';

interface DataLakeStackProps extends cdk.StackProps {
  environment: string;
  projectName: string;
}

export class DataLakeStack extends cdk.Stack {
  public readonly rawBucket: s3.Bucket;
  public readonly curatedBucket: s3.Bucket;

  constructor(scope: Construct, id: string, props: DataLakeStackProps) {
    super(scope, id, props);

    this.rawBucket = new s3.Bucket(this, 'RawBucket', {
      bucketName: `${props.projectName}-${props.environment}-raw`,
      versioned: true,
      encryption: s3.BucketEncryption.S3_MANAGED,
    });

    this.curatedBucket = new s3.Bucket(this, 'CuratedBucket', {
      bucketName: `${props.projectName}-${props.environment}-curated`,
      versioned: true,
      encryption: s3.BucketEncryption.S3_MANAGED,
    });
  }
}

Remote State (Terraform)

terraform {
  backend "s3" {
    bucket         = "company-terraform-state"
    key            = "data-platform/${var.environment}/terraform.tfstate"
    region         = "us-east-1"
    encrypt        = true
    dynamodb_table = "terraform-locks"
  }
}

Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern	Problem	Fix
Local state files	Lost state, no collaboration	Use remote backend with locking
Hardcoded values	Can't promote between envs	Use variables, tfvars per env
No modules	Copy-paste, drift between envs	Extract reusable modules
Manual console changes	Drift, undocumented	Import or recreate in code
Secrets in code/state	Security risk	Use Secrets Manager, reference by ARN
No tagging	Can't track costs or ownership	Tag everything

Checklist

Remote state with locking
All resources tagged (environment, project, owner)
No secrets in code or variables
Modules versioned and documented
Same code for all environments
Plan reviewed before apply

References

references/terraform-modules.md — Module structure and patterns

Assets

assets/iac-checklist.md — Infrastructure as Code best practices checklist

data-iac