Trooper

Trooper is an opinionated, YAML-first infrastructure and DevOps platform that standardizes how cloud resources are defined, reviewed, and deployed at scale.

Trooper’s goal is simple but ambitious:

Eliminate the operational chaos caused by ad-hoc Terraform, inconsistent pipelines, and tribal DevOps knowledge — without slowing teams down.

Trooper achieves this by letting teams declare what they want in a single YAML file, while the platform handles how it is built, validated, and applied using Terraform and proven best practices.

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What Trooper Is (and Is Not)

Trooper is

• A platform abstraction over Terraform (and optionally Terragrunt)
• A YAML-driven resource catalog model
• A standardization layer for cloud infra, CI/CD, guardrails, and governance
• A way for teams to self-serve infrastructure safely

Trooper is not

• A replacement for Terraform
• A new cloud provider
• A proprietary runtime that locks you in
• A “magic” black box — everything is auditable and deterministic

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Core Philosophy

1. YAML is the Single Source of Truth

Teams define infrastructure intent in one file: troop.yaml.

Everything else is generated and executed by Trooper.

2. Platform Teams Own the “How”

Application teams focus on declaring resources, while the platform team manages:

• Terraform backends and Provider pinning
• IAM complexity and CI/CD wiring
• Policy enforcement

3. Deterministic, Auditable Execution

• Generates Terraform at runtime in an isolated workdir
• Pins module and provider versions
• Runs policy checks before plan/apply
• Same YAML + same versions = same result

4. Clean Repos by Default

A Trooper-managed repo is intentionally minimal:

• troop.yaml
• .github/workflows/
• README.md

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The troop CLI

troop is the command-line interface for interacting with the platform.

• troop init: Initialize a project and CI workflows
• troop validate: Validate schema and intent
• troop plan --env dev: Generate and review changes
• troop apply --env prod: Execute changes safely

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Typical Workflow

1. Initialize a Project: Run troop init.
2. Define Resources: Add resources to troop.yaml.
3. Review via Pull Request: PR runs troop plan and policy checks.
4. Apply via CI: Merge triggers troop apply.

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Architecture Overview

Trooper is intentionally layered: troop.yaml (intent) -> Trooper CLI (generation) -> Terraform (execution) -> Cloud Provider

Module System

Each YAML resource type maps to a versioned Terraform module:

• network.vnet -> azure/network/vnet
• k8s.aks -> azure/kubernetes/aks
• security.keyVault -> azure/security/keyvault

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State & Governance

• State Management: Scaffolds remote state (encrypted/locked) by default. State is never committed to the repo.
• Guardrails: Designed to support Policy-as-code (OPA, Checkov), naming standards, and cost controls.

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Mission

Make infrastructure boring, safe, and repeatable — without slowing innovation.

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Status

Trooper is under active development. Interfaces and schemas may evolve, but the core principles are stable.