The developer does **not**:
- Write infrastructure modules
- Author workflow YAML beyond the one-line `uses:` wrapper
- Clone the platform repo
- Hold cloud credentials
- Maintain a state backend, a VPC, or a runner
---
# The Citizen Developer Experience
A non-technical consumer ships a production deployment **by declaring intent** — without authoring a workflow, a configuration file, or an infrastructure module.
- The consumer opens an issue describing what they need (e.g. "a web API for the pricing service")
- An AI agent maps the intent to a contract referencing a module from the **reviewed skill catalog**
- The contract enters the **same pipeline** and must clear the **same confidence gate** before promotion
**Guardrails that make this safe:**
- Skills are **versioned, signed, and reviewed for sensitive data before release** (Infra & Ops owns the review)
- Agents are **stateless** — all state lives in the platform; the platform trusts and **always verifies**
- The agent's trace and submission confidence are captured in the contract for review
Skill catalog + real agent runtime: planned
---
# The Contract
A 5-line YAML file. This is the entire consumer-facing interface to production.
```yaml
# .acdl/contract.yaml — a static site
uses: acdl/pipelines/deploy.yaml@v1.6
module: static-assets
environment: dev
inputs:
bucket_name: my-static-site-assets
region: us-east-1
```
```yaml
# .acdl/contract.yaml — a microservice
uses: acdl/pipelines/deploy.yaml@v1.6
module: microservice
environment: dev
inputs:
image: my-registry/my-microservice:latest
port: 8080
```
An invalid contract **fails fast at validation** with a clear error — not an opaque failure three stages in.
---
# No Platform Code, No Cloning
Consumers `uses:` a **versioned** central workflow. The platform fetches itself at run time. The consumer **never touches platform internals.**
- The consumer's CI definition is a thin wrapper — one `uses:` line
- The runner checks out the consumer repo, then checks out the platform repo into the workspace
- The platform installs its own runtime dependencies — the consumer installs nothing
- When the platform ships a fix, every consumer on a floating tag gets it on their next run
---
# Versioned, Predictable Releases
Consumers control **when** they absorb platform improvements.
- **Floating MAJOR + MINOR tags** (e.g. `@v1.6`) — a consumer automatically receives patch updates within the line Available today
- **Semantic versioning with a clear contract:** interface → MAJOR, behavior → MINOR, lifecycle → PATCH
- **A consumer can pin to an exact version** for maximum stability, or float on MAJOR only (`@v1`) to absorb new features on their own cadence
- **Unversioned references (`@main`, bare) are discouraged** — the versioned tag is the only immutability lever
- **Automated release job** computes the next semver on merge to main, creates the tag, and updates the floating tags Available today
---
# Instant Feedback
Developers see **what the platform is doing**, in real time, in their own run logs. Available today
- **Streamed output by default** — the infrastructure plan, policy-check results, and each check record (severity, rule ID, pass/fail) flow to stdout
- **PR comments after every successful pipeline stage** — a developer always knows where they stand without refreshing a dashboard
- **Clear, explainable halt reasons** — a policy violation, an insufficient confidence signal, or a missing attestation. **Never an opaque debugging exercise.**
- **A `--quiet` mode** suppresses streaming for log-only contexts
---
# Deploy Outputs That Just Work
After a successful deploy, the developer gets their connection information **without hunting for it** — and without secrets leaking into logs. Available today
- **Human-readable connection strings** posted as a structured GitHub PR comment / job summary
- **Runtime-injectable values** written to encrypted Parameter Store (`SecureString`, KMS-encrypted, namespaced `/acdl/{env}/{contractId}/{output_name}`)
- **No raw secrets in logs** — enforced by construction
- **Errors become GitHub issues, automatically** — a failed deploy reports through the platform Lambda, which opens (or comments on) an issue on the platform repo. The consumer's only grant is the onboarding-granted Lambda-invoke permission
---
# Friendly Onboarding
First impressions of a platform are made **when it fails for the first time.** The platform fails gracefully. Available today
When no environment is bound, the platform emits a **user-friendly onboarding prompt** instead of failing opaquely:
1. That no environment is bound to their repo yet
2. What the platform will provision on their behalf (account, network, state, role)
3. The expected turnaround for the platform team to grant the environment
4. How to request an environment
The pipeline then **exits without attempting a deployment** — no partial state, no confusing errors.
Both onboarding paths end in a **sandbox dev submission that must pass the confidence gate** before the consumer is promoted.
Citizen developer onboarding path: planned
---
# Safe Promotion Path
The contract is environment-agnostic by design. Promotion is **a workflow choice, not a contract edit** — the platform raises the bar automatically.
| **Approach A — One contract, one job per environment.** The environment is passed by each job and interpolated at runtime. The contract never changes. ```yaml jobs: dev: uses: acdl/.github/workflows/deploy.yml@v1.6 with: { contract: .acdl/contract.yaml, environment: dev } qa: needs: dev uses: acdl/.github/workflows/deploy.yml@v1.6 with: { contract: .acdl/contract.yaml, environment: qa } ``` | **Approach B — Environment-specific contracts.** When inputs genuinely differ per environment, each job points at its own contract file. ```yaml jobs: dev: uses: acdl/.github/workflows/deploy.yml@v1.6 with: { contract: .acdl/contract-dev.yaml } qa: needs: dev uses: acdl/.github/workflows/deploy.yml@v1.6 with: { contract: .acdl/contract-qa.yaml } ``` |