Automation patterns

Automation intent determines the credential, command, approval boundary, and meaning of success.

Open the PlantUML source

Pattern comparison

Pattern	Command	Credential	Mutation control
Pull-request validation	plan	Read-only for required repositories and settings	No apply step exists
Scheduled observation	audit	Read-only inventory access	Findings are reported and exit 1, so the job fails on drift
Protected application	apply --plan	Minimum write permissions loaded only after approval	Trusted ref, the exact plan that was reviewed, protected environment, controlled logs

A plan job can now hand a saved plan to a later apply job: plan --out writes a versioned artifact, and apply --plan performs exactly the operations it records or refuses with the reason. The artifact is not cryptographically signed, and does not try to be — it detects a plan that no longer matches the world it was made in, through the actor, each account's numeric identity, the configuration and source digests, and an expiry. It carries the same trust as the configuration file beside it: both are ordinary files on disk.

Protected apply without --plan still plans again in its own invocation and displays that plan before the workflow approval or --yes boundary.

Copy the supported workflows from the CI/CD automation guide.