These are the foundational modules that enable Pulumi SDK to manage cloud infrastructure using familiar programming languages:

• Pulumi CLI: The command-line tool that interacts with your stack and cloud environment. It allows you to preview infrastructure changes, deploy updates, destroy resources, and manage configuration across multiple environments.
• Language Host: The runtime that allows Pulumi to execute infrastructure code written in supported languages like TypeScript, Python, Go, and C#. The language host communicates resource definitions back to the Pulumi engine.
• Pulumi Engine: The orchestration core that coordinates resource creation, update, and deletion. It ensures state consistency and communicates with underlying cloud providers through resource providers.
• State Backend: Stores a snapshot of your infrastructure’s current state. This can be local, in the Pulumi Service, or in external backends like AWS S3 or Azure Blob Storage. The state enables Pulumi to calculate the delta between current and desired infrastructure.
• Resource Providers: Interface between the Pulumi Engine and actual cloud APIs. Providers translate Pulumi’s instructions into cloud-specific API calls for AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, and more.
• Stacks: Named deployments of a Pulumi program used to represent distinct environments (e.g., dev, staging, prod). Each stack has isolated state and configuration, ideal for environment separation and lifecycle control.

Pulumi SDK offers broad support for both programming languages and cloud infrastructure providers, enabling flexible and scalable infrastructure-as-code solutions:

• Supported Languages:
  • TypeScript / JavaScript: Full-featured support with first-class packages and async capabilities.
  • Python: Widely used for scripting and automation with Pulumi’s decorator-based resource syntax.
  • Go: Natively supported with options for building custom providers and CLIs.
  • C# / .NET: Ideal for enterprise users using .NET Core for infrastructure and app integration.
  • Java (Preview): Early access support for JVM-based environments.
• Supported Providers:
  • AWS: Manage EC2 instances, Lambda functions, S3 buckets, IAM policies, and more.
  • Azure: Full support for Azure Resource Manager (ARM), including Web Apps, AzureSQL, and networking.
  • Google Cloud (GCP): Provision compute, storage, networking, Kubernetes Engine, and IAM.
  • Kubernetes: Deploy and manage Kubernetes resources (Pods, Deployments, Services, CRDs).
  • Cloudflare: Manage DNS, Workers, WAF, and Zero Trust configurations.
  • Datadog, F5, GitHub, VMware, MongoDB Atlas, and others: Expansive ecosystem of providers available.
• Custom Providers: Pulumi allows you to build and integrate your own resource providers using the Pulumi Provider SDK (primarily in Go). This helps extend Pulumi's functionality to internal tooling, SaaS APIs, or legacy systems.

A Pulumi project has a simple but powerful structure that allows developers to organize infrastructure code like traditional software. Here’s what you can expect to find in a typical project folder:

• Pulumi.yaml: The project metadata file that defines the name of the project, the runtime language, and optional backend configuration. It is shared across stacks within the same project.
• Pulumi.<stack>.yaml: Stack-specific configuration file (e.g., Pulumi.dev.yaml, Pulumi.prod.yaml). Holds sensitive and environment-specific values like API keys, region info, and secrets.
• Main Program File: The entry point for your Pulumi code:
  • index.ts for TypeScript/JavaScript
  • __main__.py for Python
  • main.go for Go
  • Program.cs for C#/.NET
  This is where you define your cloud resources.
• Dependencies: Managed using your language’s native tooling:
  • package.json for Node.js
  • requirements.txt or pyproject.toml for Python
  • go.mod for Go
  • .csproj files for C# projects
• Component Modules (optional): Many projects include folders like /components, /infra, or /resources to break infrastructure into reusable packages or logical units.
• Tests (optional): You can include a /tests directory and use testing frameworks like pytest, mocha, or go test depending on your language to write unit and integration tests for your infrastructure code.

The structure is lightweight, version-controlled, and supports multiple environments through the use of separate stacks and configuration files.

The Pulumi SDK introduces several foundational concepts that shape how infrastructure is defined, managed, and automated using code:

• Project: Represents a collection of infrastructure code in a chosen language. A project typically defines the architecture and resource relationships for a cloud application or environment.
• Stack: An isolated instance of a Pulumi project used to represent different environments—like development, staging, or production. Each stack holds its own configuration, secrets, and state, making environment management straightforward and reproducible.
• Resource: The core object managed by Pulumi. Resources can be cloud components such as virtual machines, storage buckets, or Kubernetes deployments. Resources are declared in code and Pulumi orchestrates their lifecycle (create, update, delete).
• Inputs and Outputs: Inputs allow you to pass values into resources (like configuration, names, or tags). Outputs represent values produced by resources (like an IP address) that can serve as inputs to other resources, enabling dependency management and orchestrating complex topologies.
• Configuration: Enables you to define customizable variables on a per-stack basis. Configuration makes it easy to parameterize deployments, manage secrets, and support multi-environment setups.
• State Management: Pulumi tracks the full state of your infrastructure in a backend (local or cloud). This state allows Pulumi to calculate required changes, support previews, and ensure resources are correctly managed over time.
• Preview, Update, Destroy:
  • Preview: Simulates infrastructure changes, letting you review potential modifications before they’re applied.
  • Update: Applies code changes, creating or updating cloud resources according to your desired state.
  • Destroy: Deletes resources managed by a stack, allowing full teardown of cloud environments.
• Secrets Management: Pulumi natively supports encryption for sensitive values (like passwords and keys) within configuration and state files. This ensures secure handling of credentials across environments.

Together, these concepts empower you to express infrastructure using code, enforce best practices, and achieve repeatable, version-controlled cloud deployments.

The Pulumi Provider SDK enables developers to create custom Pulumi providers using Go. This opens the door to managing new types of resources, integrating with internal APIs, or extending Pulumi’s capabilities beyond what is available in official providers.

• Purpose: The SDK simplifies the required logic to build and publish a provider by focusing on business needs instead of boilerplate code. It is ideal for creating new resource types, wrapping SaaS APIs, and supporting specific organizational workflows.
• Key Features:
  • Schema Generation: Automatically produces provider schemas for multi-language support.
  • Code-First in Go: Define provider logic, resource types, and inputs/outputs using Go structures and interfaces.
  • Middleware Support: Built-in layers for tasks such as schema handling, authentication, and cancellation propagation.
  • Simplified Resource Definition: Use specialized libraries like infer and resourcex for rapid resource creation.
  • Testing Framework: Integrated testing capabilities make it easy to validate your provider logic before release.
• How It Works:
  • Providers are written as Go binaries, implementing resource lifecycle methods: Create, Read, Update, Delete, Diff, and Check.
  • The SDK automatically handles schema mapping, gRPC server setup, and provides hooks for configuration, output handling, and error reporting.
  • Providers communicate directly with the Pulumi Engine to orchestrate the creation and management of custom resources.
• Getting Started Example:
  • Define Resource Structs: Create Go structs for resources, input arguments, and state.
  • Implement Lifecycle Methods: Write required methods (e.g., Create, Delete) to specify how resources are managed.
  • Register Resources: Use the SDK’s provider builder to declare resources and start the provider process.
  • Distribute Provider: Package and register the resulting Go binary so it can be used across all Pulumi-supported languages.
• Advantages Over Traditional Provider Authoring:

  Feature	Traditional SDKs	Pulumi Provider SDK
  Language Support	Manual schema, JSON	Go-first, multi-language auto-generation
  Schema Management	Manual	Automatic
  Middleware	Limited	Built-in
  Resource Definition	Verbose CRUD logic	Inferred, simplified

• Typical Workflow:
  1. Design resource types and provider interfaces in Go.
  2. Implement resource lifecycle logic.
  3. Run the SDK's schema and code generation tools for multi-language support.
  4. Package and publish your provider for use in Pulumi projects.

The Pulumi Provider SDK accelerates building new integrations, empowering teams to automate and codify infrastructure for virtually any system or API.

Pulumi uses a schema-driven model to define cloud resources and auto-generate SDKs for multiple programming languages. This allows developers to write infrastructure code using strongly typed objects with autocompletion and documentation support.

• What is a Schema? A schema is a machine-readable definition of a provider's resources, properties, functions, inputs, and outputs. It describes:
  • Each resource and its configurable attributes
  • Acceptable types and required fields
  • Provider configuration parameters
  • Output types and their structure
  Schemas are typically written in JSON or YAML format and follow Pulumi’s standardized format.
• SDK Generation: Pulumi uses the schema to automatically generate language-specific SDKs so providers can be consumed seamlessly in:
  • TypeScript / JavaScript
  • Python
  • Go
  • C# / .NET
  This ensures feature parity across all supported languages.
• Code Generation Tools: The Provider SDK includes tooling to:
  • Convert the schema into API bindings for each supported language
  • Build language-specific documentation from schema definitions
  • Produce metadata used for IDE autocompletion and validation
  These generated SDKs are what developers import into their infrastructure projects.
• Benefit to Developers:
  • Strong typing and validation at design time
  • Intuitive IDE support: intellisense, tooltips, completions
  • Single source of truth for documentation, code, and tests
  • Easier contributor onboarding with predictable, language-compatible SDK interfaces
• Developer Workflow:
  1. Define or update your provider schema file (JSON/YAML).
  2. Use Pulumi codegen tools to generate SDKs and docs.
  3. Publish updated SDKs for each supported language.
  4. Reference the provider package in applications via appropriate package managers.

Using schema-driven SDK generation ensures any Pulumi provider you create is future-proof, multi-language ready, and well-documented from day one.

Once your Pulumi provider is built and tested, publishing it with proper documentation ensures it’s discoverable and usable across teams or the Pulumi community.

• Publishing the Provider:
  • Compile the provider binary using Go.
  • Pack and version the provider for each supported operating system/architecture.
  • Push the release to your GitHub repository and publish to the Pulumi Registry using GitHub Actions or CI/CD pipelines.
  Versioned releases keep the provider stable over time and give developers confidence in its usage.
• Metadata Requirements: Pulumi expects a set of fields in your schema for correct rendering in the Pulumi Registry:
  • name – A short, unique ID for the provider.
  • displayName – Human-readable title shown in the registry UI.
  • description – A brief summary of the provider functionality.
  • publisher – The org or username maintaining the provider.
  • logoUrl – Optional icon shown in listings.
  • keywords – Array of searchable tags to categorize the provider.
• Documentation Layout: In addition to auto-generated API reference docs, you can include user-facing Markdown guides:
  • /docs/index.md – Landing page for the provider in the registry.
  • /docs/installation.md – Steps to install and set up the provider.
  • /docs/configuration.md – Details about configuring provider inputs.
  • /docs/resources.md – Optional resource-specific guides and examples.
  These Markdown files live alongside your code and are pulled in during the registry publishing process.
• Auto-Generated Reference Docs: Pulumi uses the schema file to generate API references for:
  • Resource types and arguments
  • Input/output property structures
  • Function calls and return values
  These docs appear in the Pulumi Registry and in IDEs via language SDKs.
• Publishing Workflow Overview:
  1. Finalize and test the provider codebase and schema.
  2. Push a GitHub release with version tags (e.g., v1.0.0).
  3. Trigger GitHub Actions to build binaries and publish to the Pulumi Registry.
  4. Verify auto-generated docs and custom Markdown guides render correctly in the registry.

Publishing with solid documentation not only helps adoption but also ensures your provider is accessible, consistent, and trustworthy across cloud automation projects.

This example walks through a complete Pulumi workflow from project creation to deployment and teardown. Whether you’re developing infrastructure for a new app or automating existing cloud setups, these steps help keep your deployment automated and version-controlled.

1. Initialize a New Project:
   • Run pulumi new and choose a template for your language (TypeScript, Python, Go, etc.).
   • Answer the prompts to set up your project name, stack name, and default config values.
   • This creates the baseline structure, including Pulumi.yaml and main program files.
2. Write Your Infrastructure Code:
   • Open the main file (e.g. index.ts, main.go, or __main__.py).
   • Import provider packages and declare resources such as servers, buckets, VPCs, or Kubernetes clusters.
   • Use variables, loops, and functions to make infrastructure reusable and dynamic.
3. Configure Stack Settings:
   • Use pulumi config set <key> <value> to assign region, credentials, or environment-specific values.
   • Secrets (e.g., passwords or tokens) can be encrypted automatically with --secret.
4. Preview the Deployment:
   • Run pulumi preview to see what resources will be added, changed, or deleted.
   • This dry-run helps avoid unintended consequences before pushing changes live.
5. Deploy Your Infrastructure:
   • Execute pulumi up to provision or update the cloud resources.
   • Confirm the action after reviewing the deploy summary in the terminal.
   • Logs and outputs are visible during and after deployment for monitoring and validation.
6. Manage Multiple Stacks:
   • Create additional environments with pulumi stack init staging or pulumi stack init prod.
   • Each stack gets its own Pulumi.<stack>.yaml config and infrastructure state.
   • Switch stacks using pulumi stack select <name>.
7. Destroy Resources:
   • You can remove all the resources created in a stack using pulumi destroy.
   • This is helpful for cleanup during CI/CD runs or for teardown in non-production environments.
8. (Optional) Add a Custom Provider:
   • Integrate with internal services or APIs by building a custom provider using the Provider SDK.
   • Use it like any other Pulumi package after linking into your project and stack configuration.

This workflow promotes code-first infrastructure practices where everything—from provisioning to teardown—is automated, tested, and source-controlled.