pulumi-automation-api

Pulumi Automation API

When to Use This Skill

Invoke this skill when:

• Orchestrating deployments across multiple Pulumi stacks
• Embedding Pulumi operations in custom applications
• Building self-service infrastructure platforms
• Replacing fragile Bash/Makefile orchestration scripts
• Creating custom CLIs for infrastructure management
• Building web applications that provision infrastructure

What is Automation API

Automation API provides programmatic access to Pulumi operations. Instead of running pulumi up from the CLI, you call functions in your code that perform the same operations.

import * as automation from "@pulumi/pulumi/automation";

// Create or select a stack
const stack = await automation.LocalWorkspace.createOrSelectStack({
    stackName: "dev",
    projectName: "my-project",
    program: async () => {
        // Your Pulumi program here
    },
});

// Run pulumi up programmatically
const upResult = await stack.up({ onOutput: console.log });
console.log(`Update summary: ${JSON.stringify(upResult.summary)}`);

When to Use Automation API

Good Use Cases

Multi-stack orchestration:

When you split infrastructure into multiple focused projects, Automation API helps offset the added complexity by orchestrating operations across stacks:

infrastructure → platform → application
     ↓              ↓            ↓
   (VPC)      (Kubernetes)   (Services)

Automation API ensures correct sequencing without manual intervention.

Self-service platforms:

Build internal tools where developers request infrastructure without learning Pulumi:

• Web portals for environment provisioning
• Slack bots that create/destroy resources
• Custom CLIs tailored to your organization

Embedded infrastructure:

Applications that provision their own infrastructure:

• SaaS platforms creating per-tenant resources
• Testing frameworks spinning up test environments
• CI/CD systems with dynamic infrastructure needs

Replacing fragile scripts: