Practice platform engineering vocabulary around golden paths, paved roads, opinionated defaults, and measuring golden path adoption across engineering teams.
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What is a 'golden path' in platform engineering?
A golden path is an opinionated, pre-configured, well-supported way of doing something (e.g., creating a new service). Teams are encouraged — but not forced — to follow it. Spotify popularized this concept.
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How does a 'paved road' differ from a 'golden path'?
A 'paved road' is a less opinionated path — it provides good tooling and support but allows more deviation. A golden path is more prescriptive about the exact tools and patterns to use.
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What does 'golden path adoption rate' measure?
Golden path adoption rate measures what percentage of teams or services are using the platform's recommended golden path versus building their own custom solutions. It's a key platform team health metric.
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A team decides not to use the golden path and builds their own CI/CD setup. What is this called in platform engineering?
When teams deviate from the golden path, they 'go off the golden path.' Platform teams should understand why — either the golden path has gaps, or the team has unique requirements. Feedback loops help improve the path.
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The 'rails metaphor' in platform engineering refers to which concept?
The 'rails metaphor' describes how a good golden path acts like rails on a train track — constraining developers toward good patterns while still allowing movement. The rails prevent derailment (bad practices) without stopping progress.