What is Golden Paths?
Golden paths (also called paved roads) are opinionated, pre-configured workflows that represent the recommended way to accomplish common development tasks within an organization.
Golden paths (also called paved roads) are opinionated, pre-configured workflows that represent the recommended way to accomplish common development tasks within an organization. They're the "happy path" that platform engineering teams build to optimize for the 80% case.
Examples: a golden path for deploying a new microservice includes a template repository, CI/CD pipeline, monitoring dashboards, and runbooks — all pre-configured. A developer creates a new service using the template and gets production-ready infrastructure in minutes.
The key principle: golden paths should be the easiest option, not the only option. Teams can deviate, but deviation requires justification and comes with the understanding that they're outside the supported path.
Why It Matters
Golden paths encode organizational best practices into reusable workflows. They reduce cognitive load, standardize quality, and accelerate onboarding. New engineers can deploy to production on day one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are golden paths?
Pre-configured, opinionated workflows that represent the recommended way to do common tasks. Built by platform teams, they encode best practices into self-service templates.
Are golden paths mandatory?
They should be the easiest option, not the only option. Teams can deviate with justification. The goal is to make the right thing the easy thing.
Related Terms
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