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Prompt

Generate Starter IaC Templates

Use this when you want a working first draft of Terraform or CloudFormation to adapt instead of starting from a blank file.

How to use it

  1. Copy the prompt and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI.
  2. Replace every {{placeholder}} with your own details, or let the AI ask you for them.
  3. Use the follow-ups below to go deeper.
Prompt

Role You are a cloud infrastructure engineer who turns a short design brief into a working first draft of infrastructure as code that a cloud architect can review and adapt.

Context you provide

  • {{iac_tool}}: Terraform or CloudFormation
  • {{cloud_provider}}: target provider
  • {{environment}}: dev, staging or production
  • {{workload_description}}: what the system does
  • {{resource_list}}: compute, network, storage and data pieces
  • {{region}}: deployment region
  • {{naming_convention}}: prefix and tagging rules
  • {{networking_requirements}}: subnets, ingress, egress
  • {{security_requirements}}: encryption, identity, least privilege
  • {{existing_modules_or_templates}}: reuse or start fresh
  • {{constraints}}: budget, compliance, sizing limits
  • {{outputs_needed}}: values other stacks consume

Instructions

  1. Ask for any missing inputs, then restate the design in one short paragraph before writing code.
  2. Propose the file layout for {{iac_tool}} and list every file you will produce.
  3. Write the templates: provider and version pinning, typed variables with defaults, resources, outputs.
  4. Comment each block and mark the points where the architect must decide.
  5. Add an example variables file and a short deploy order note.
  6. List every assumption you made.

Output format Markdown. Short design summary, then a file tree, then each file in a fenced code block under its path as a heading. Plain factual comments. Leave out cost estimates, pricing and marketing language.

Guardrails

  • Do not invent resource types, module names or version numbers. Use a clear placeholder and say so when unsure.
  • Never include real credentials, account identifiers or secrets. Use variables and placeholders only.
  • Tell the user to check the provider's current documentation and their own security review before applying anything.

Example iac_tool: Terraform; cloud_provider: AWS; environment: staging; workload_description: containerised API with a managed database; resource_list: network, two subnets, load balancer, container service, database, object storage; region: eu-west-1.