> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://notes.nomanaziz.me/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://notes.nomanaziz.me/devops/infrastructure-as-a-code-iac/terraform/15.-final-thoughts.md).

# 15. Final Thoughts

### Developer Workflow & Automation

1. Write/update code
2. Run changes locally (for dev env)
3. Create pull request
4. Run Tests via CI
5. Deploy to staging via CD (on merge to main)
6. Deploy to prod via CD (on release)

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### Additional Tools

1. Terragrunt
   * Minmizes code repitition
   * Enables multi-account seperation (improved isolation/security)
2. Cloud Nuke
   * Easy cleanup of cloud resources
3. Makefiles
   * Prevent human erro

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### Potential Gotchas

* Name changes when refactoring
* Sensitive data in Terraform state files
* Cloud timeouts
* Naming conflicts
* Forgetting to destory test-infra
* Uni-directional version upgrades
* Multiple ways to accomplish same config
* Some params are immutable
* Out of band changes

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