# Infrastructure/DevOps Tool Architecture Questions

## Tool Type

1. **Primary tool category:**
   - Infrastructure as Code (IaC) module/provider
   - Kubernetes Operator
   - CI/CD plugin/action
   - Monitoring/Observability tool
   - Configuration management tool
   - Deployment automation tool
   - GitOps tool
   - Security/Compliance scanner
   - Cost optimization tool
   - Multi-tool platform

## Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

2. **IaC platform (if applicable):**
   - Terraform
   - Pulumi
   - CloudFormation (AWS)
   - Bicep (Azure)
   - CDK (AWS, TypeScript/Python)
   - CDKTF (Terraform with CDK)
   - Ansible
   - Chef
   - Puppet
   - Not applicable

3. **IaC language:**
   - HCL (Terraform)
   - TypeScript (Pulumi, CDK)
   - Python (Pulumi, CDK)
   - Go (Pulumi)
   - YAML (CloudFormation, Ansible)
   - JSON
   - Domain-specific language
   - Other: **\_\_\_**

4. **Terraform specifics (if applicable):**
   - Terraform module (reusable component)
   - Terraform provider (new resource types)
   - Terraform backend (state storage)
   - Not using Terraform

5. **Target cloud platforms:**
   - AWS
   - Azure
   - Google Cloud
   - Multi-cloud
   - On-premise (VMware, OpenStack)
   - Hybrid cloud
   - Kubernetes (cloud-agnostic)

## Kubernetes Operator (if applicable)

6. **Operator framework:**
   - Operator SDK (Go)
   - Kubebuilder (Go)
   - KUDO
   - Kopf (Python)
   - Java Operator SDK
   - Metacontroller
   - Custom (raw client-go)
   - Not applicable

7. **Operator type:**
   - Application operator (manage app lifecycle)
   - Infrastructure operator (manage resources)
   - Data operator (databases, queues)
   - Security operator
   - Other: **\_\_\_**

8. **Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs):**
   - Define new CRDs
   - Use existing CRDs
   - Multiple CRDs

9. **Operator scope:**
   - Namespace-scoped
   - Cluster-scoped
   - Both

10. **Reconciliation pattern:**
    - Level-based (check desired vs actual state)
    - Edge-triggered (react to changes)
    - Hybrid

## CI/CD Integration

11. **CI/CD platform (if plugin/action):**
    - GitHub Actions
    - GitLab CI
    - Jenkins
    - CircleCI
    - Azure DevOps
    - Bitbucket Pipelines
    - Drone CI
    - Tekton
    - Argo Workflows
    - Not applicable

12. **Plugin type (if CI/CD plugin):**
    - Build step
    - Test step
    - Deployment step
    - Security scan
    - Notification
    - Custom action
    - Not applicable

13. **GitHub Action specifics (if applicable):**
    - JavaScript action
    - Docker container action
    - Composite action (reusable workflow)
    - Not using GitHub Actions

## Configuration and State Management

14. **Configuration approach:**
    - Configuration files (YAML, JSON, HCL)

- Environment variables
- Command-line flags
- API-based configuration
- Multiple methods

15. **State management:**
    - Stateless (idempotent operations)
    - Local state file
    - Remote state (S3, Consul, Terraform Cloud)
    - Database state
    - Kubernetes ConfigMaps/Secrets
    - Not applicable

16. **Secrets management:**
    - Vault (HashiCorp)
    - AWS Secrets Manager
    - Azure Key Vault
    - Google Secret Manager
    - Kubernetes Secrets
    - SOPS (encrypted files)
    - Sealed Secrets
    - External Secrets Operator
    - Environment variables
    - Not applicable

## Execution Model

17. **Execution pattern:**
    - CLI tool (run locally or in CI)
    - Kubernetes controller (runs in cluster)
    - Daemon/agent (runs on nodes/VMs)
    - Web service (API-driven)
    - Scheduled job (cron, K8s CronJob)
    - Event-driven (webhook, queue)

18. **Deployment model:**
    - Single binary (Go, Rust)
    - Container image
    - Script (Python, Bash)
    - Helm chart
    - Kustomize
    - Installed via package manager
    - Multiple deployment methods

19. **Concurrency:**
    - Single-threaded (sequential)
    - Multi-threaded (parallel operations)
    - Async I/O
    - Not applicable

## Resource Management

20. **Resources managed:**
    - Compute (VMs, containers, functions)
    - Networking (VPC, load balancers, DNS)
    - Storage (disks, buckets, databases)
    - Identity (IAM, service accounts)
    - Security (firewall, policies)
    - Kubernetes resources (pods, services, etc.)
    - Multiple resource types

21. **Resource lifecycle:**
    - Create/provision
    - Update/modify
    - Delete/destroy
    - Import existing resources
    - All of the above

22. **Dependency management:**
    - Explicit dependencies (depends_on)
    - Implicit dependencies (reference outputs)
    - DAG-based (topological sort)
    - None (independent resources)

## Language and Framework

23. **Implementation language:**
    - Go (common for K8s, CLI tools)
    - Python (scripting, automation)
    - TypeScript/JavaScript (Pulumi, CDK)
    - Rust (performance-critical tools)
    - Bash/Shell (simple scripts)
    - Java (enterprise tools)
    - Ruby (Chef, legacy tools)
    - Other: **\_\_\_**

24. **Key libraries/SDKs:**
    - AWS SDK
    - Azure SDK
    - Google Cloud SDK
    - Kubernetes client-go
    - Terraform Plugin SDK
    - Ansible modules
    - Custom libraries
    - Other: **\_\_\_**

## API and Integration

25. **API exposure:**
    - REST API
    - gRPC API
    - CLI only (no API)
    - Kubernetes API (CRDs)
    - Webhook receiver
    - Multiple interfaces

26. **External integrations:**
    - Cloud provider APIs (AWS, Azure, GCP)
    - Kubernetes API
    - Monitoring systems (Prometheus, Datadog)
    - Notification services (Slack, PagerDuty)
    - Version control (Git)
    - Other: **\_\_\_**

## Idempotency and Safety

27. **Idempotency:**
    - Fully idempotent (safe to run multiple times)
    - Conditionally idempotent (with flags)
    - Not idempotent (manual cleanup needed)

28. **Dry-run/Plan mode:**
    - Yes (preview changes before applying)
    - No (immediate execution)

29. **Rollback capability:**
    - Automatic rollback on failure
    - Manual rollback (previous state)
    - No rollback (manual cleanup)

30. **Destructive operations:**
    - Confirmation required (--force flag)
    - Automatic (with safeguards)
    - Not applicable (read-only tool)

## Observability

31. **Logging:**
    - Structured logging (JSON)
    - Plain text logs
    - Library: (logrus, zap, winston, etc.)
    - Multiple log levels (debug, info, warn, error)

32. **Metrics:**
    - Prometheus metrics
    - CloudWatch metrics
    - Datadog metrics
    - Custom metrics
    - None

33. **Tracing:**
    - OpenTelemetry
    - Jaeger
    - Not applicable

34. **Health checks:**
    - Kubernetes liveness/readiness probes
    - HTTP health endpoint
    - Not applicable (CLI tool)

## Testing

35. **Testing approach:**
    - Unit tests (mock external APIs)
    - Integration tests (real cloud resources)
    - E2E tests (full workflow)
    - Contract tests (API compatibility)
    - Manual testing
    - All of the above

36. **Test environment:**
    - Local (mocked)
    - Dev/staging cloud account
    - Kind/minikube (for K8s)
    - Multiple environments

37. **Terraform testing (if applicable):**
    - Terratest (Go-based testing)
    - terraform validate
    - terraform plan (in CI)
    - Not applicable

38. **Kubernetes testing (if operator):**
    - Unit tests (Go testing)
    - envtest (fake API server)
    - Kind cluster (real cluster)
    - Not applicable

## Documentation

39. **Documentation format:**
    - README (basic)
    - Detailed docs (Markdown files)
    - Generated docs (godoc, Sphinx, etc.)
    - Doc website (MkDocs, Docusaurus)
    - Interactive examples
    - All of the above

40. **Usage examples:**
    - Code examples
    - Tutorial walkthroughs
    - Video demos
    - Sample configurations
    - Minimal (README only)

## Distribution

41. **Distribution method:**
    - GitHub Releases (binaries)
    - Package manager (homebrew, apt, yum)
    - Container registry (Docker Hub, ghcr.io)
    - Terraform Registry
    - Helm chart repository
    - Language package manager (npm, pip, gem)
    - Multiple methods

42. **Installation:**
    - Download binary
    - Package manager install
    - Helm install (for K8s)
    - Container image pull
    - Build from source
    - Multiple methods

43. **Versioning:**
    - Semantic versioning (semver)
    - Calendar versioning
    - API version compatibility

## Updates and Lifecycle

44. **Update mechanism:**
    - Manual download/install
    - Package manager update
    - Auto-update (self-update command)
    - Helm upgrade
    - Not applicable

45. **Backward compatibility:**
    - Fully backward compatible
    - Breaking changes documented
    - Migration guides provided

46. **Deprecation policy:**
    - Formal deprecation warnings
    - Support for N-1 versions
    - No formal policy

## Security

47. **Credentials handling:**
    - Environment variables
    - Config file (encrypted)
    - Cloud provider IAM (instance roles, IRSA)
    - Kubernetes ServiceAccount
    - Vault integration
    - Multiple methods

48. **Least privilege:**
    - Minimal permissions documented
    - Permission templates provided (IAM policies)
    - No specific guidance

49. **Code signing:**
    - Signed binaries
    - Container image signing (cosign)
    - Not signed

50. **Supply chain security:**
    - SBOM (Software Bill of Materials)
    - Provenance attestation
    - Dependency scanning
    - None

## Compliance and Governance

51. **Compliance focus:**
    - Policy enforcement (OPA, Kyverno)
    - Audit logging
    - Cost tagging
    - Security posture
    - Not applicable

52. **Policy as Code:**
    - OPA (Open Policy Agent)
    - Sentinel (Terraform)
    - Kyverno (Kubernetes)
    - Custom policies
    - Not applicable

53. **Audit trail:**
    - Change tracking
    - GitOps audit (Git history)
    - CloudTrail/Activity logs
    - Not applicable

## Performance and Scale

54. **Performance requirements:**
    - Fast execution (seconds)
    - Moderate (minutes)
    - Long-running (hours acceptable)
    - Background reconciliation (continuous)

55. **Scale considerations:**
    - Small scale (< 10 resources)
    - Medium (10-100 resources)
    - Large (100-1000 resources)
    - Very large (1000+ resources)

56. **Rate limiting:**
    - Respect cloud API limits
    - Configurable rate limits
    - Not applicable

## CI/CD and Automation

57. **CI/CD for the tool itself:**
    - GitHub Actions
    - GitLab CI
    - CircleCI
    - Custom
    - Manual builds

58. **Release automation:**
    - Automated releases (tags trigger build)
    - Manual releases
    - GoReleaser (for Go projects)
    - Semantic release

59. **Pre-commit hooks:**
    - Linting
    - Formatting
    - Security scans
    - None

## Community and Ecosystem

60. **Open source:**
    - Fully open source
    - Proprietary
    - Open core (free + paid features)

61. **License:**
    - MIT
    - Apache 2.0
    - GPL
    - Proprietary
    - Other: **\_\_\_**

62. **Community support:**
    - GitHub issues
    - Slack/Discord community
    - Forum
    - Commercial support
    - Minimal (internal tool)

63. **Plugin/Extension system:**
    - Extensible (plugins supported)
    - Monolithic
    - Planned for future
