A golden path is a recommended, supported route for validating software changes and delivering them to production. Platform teams codify and automate the workflow so development teams can focus on application features without managing every underlying tool or configuration. section 1.1.5 section 1.3
A production-oriented golden path commonly combines:
- Service pipelines that build and package application artifacts, such as containers. section 4.4
- Environment pipelines that promote those artifacts and their configuration between development and production environments. section 4.4
- Automation that coordinates deployments, validations, and manual checks across production clusters. section 4.4
- Visibility into delivery progress, resource use, costs, incidents, and release availability. section 1.1.5 section 1.3
Treating the platform as an internal product keeps the path aligned with application-team workflows. Consumers need to know how to use the environments, not how the platform tools are implemented. The path can remain flexible: development teams may receive direct cluster access when GitOps is unsuitable, while mature platforms automate coordination across environments. section 1.3 section 4.4
Figure 4.22 What does it take to promote new releases to our production environments?
Use the release-promotion overview to trace how service and environment pipelines move a change toward production. section 4.4
