WHY formae – INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE THAT MATCHES REALITY

Infrastructure is constantly created and modified through different IaC tools, ClickOps, automation, scripts, and emergency fixes. With multiple independent paths changing the same infrastructure, keeping any declared configuration aligned with reality is hard. Infrastructure drift becomes the default.

formae is Infrastructure as Code. It maintains an always up-to-date internal state of live infrastructure and lets you extract Infrastructure as Code from that state whenever you need it.

FORMAE ELIMINATES INFRASTRUCTURE DRIFT BY DESIGN

Infrastructure drift occurs when real resources no longer match declared configuration. This is typically caused by out-of-band changes such as ClickOps, scripts, hotfixes, or changes made by other tools.

Traditional Infrastructure as Code tools rely on static state files and detect drift only at specific points in time, usually during a plan or apply. Between runs, infrastructure can diverge silently.

Compared to traditional state-based IaC tools, formae treats live infrastructure as the source of truth.

formae continuously captures every change made to your infrastructure — whether through formae itself, other IaC tools, ClickOps, or automation — automatically versions those changes, and absorbs them into its internal state.

That internal state is always current and versioned. Drift does not accumulate.

GENERATE INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE FROM EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE

formae does not attempt to keep hand-written IaC files in sync with reality.

Instead, it maintains a continuously updated internal representation of live infrastructure. Infrastructure as Code is extracted from that state on demand.

You can generate up-to-date Infrastructure as Code for your entire infrastructure estate, for a specific environment, service, or component, and at any desired level of granularity.

The extracted code always reflects what is actually running, not a planned future state and not an outdated snapshot.

INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE FOR GITOPS AND GRANULAR APPLY WORKFLOWS

Many teams come from a GitOps background and maintain their Infrastructure as Code in their own Git repositories. That repository often defines the review and approval process, even when it has drifted from what is actually running.

formae is designed to meet teams where they are.

formae does not automatically modify your Git repository. Teams can continue to write and manage Infrastructure as Code by hand, using familiar GitOps workflows.

At the same time, formae allows changes to be applied directly through formae in any granularity — from small, targeted updates to broader system changes.

Teams can:

• write patches manually for incremental changes
• apply changes selectively to specific resources or components
• attempt full reconciliation when desired

This makes it possible to combine classic GitOps workflows with fine-grained apply workflows, without giving up control or assuming that all changes must flow through a single path.

INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE WITHOUT STATE FILE RECONCILIATION

Many Infrastructure as Code tools depend on external state files that must be kept in sync with reality. When that state becomes outdated, drift accumulates and plans become unreliable.

formae does not require a separate state file to be manually reconciled.

Its internal state is continuously updated from live infrastructure, regardless of how changes are introduced. Infrastructure as Code is derived from that state, not used as the source of truth.

This removes an entire class of problems related to stale state, failed imports, and manual reconciliation.

EXTENSIBLE INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE FOR ANY TECHNOLOGY

Modern infrastructure often includes internal platforms, custom services, hardware, appliances, and technologies exposed through APIs.

formae is designed to be easily extensible.

Support for new technologies can be added quickly, including systems that expose RESTful APIs, control interfaces, or hardware management endpoints. These integrations become part of formae’s internal state and participate in the same workflows as any other infrastructure.

This allows Infrastructure as Code to extend beyond predefined providers and keep pace with heterogeneous and evolving environments.

INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE BUILT FOR DAY-2 OPERATIONS

Most Infrastructure as Code tools focus primarily on Day-1 provisioning. Real systems spend most of their lifetime in Day-2 operations: changes, fixes, scaling, and ongoing evolution.

formae treats Day-2 as the default.

The internal state adapts continuously as infrastructure changes, regardless of whether those changes come from IaC tools, ClickOps, or automation.

ADOPT INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE WITHOUT FORCED MIGRATION

Adopting Infrastructure as Code for existing infrastructure is traditionally painful. Importing resources, migrating state, and refactoring existing setups requires significant upfront effort.

Unlike traditional Terraform migration approaches, formae does not require importing resources or migrating state before it becomes useful. Teams looking to migrate away from Terraform can adopt formae incrementally, without freezing changes or rewriting infrastructure.

You can enable formae on an existing environment and immediately discover what is running. From there, you can extract Infrastructure as Code directly from the current state.

No forced migration.
No mandatory refactoring.
No freeze on changes.

HOW FORMAE FITS INTO REAL ORGANIZATIONS

Infrastructure is shared across teams and roles. formae does not assume a single owner, a single workflow, or exclusive control over infrastructure.

It is commonly used by platform engineering teams managing shared infrastructure, application teams making scoped changes, on-call engineers applying emergency fixes, and security or operations teams managing specific resources.

Because formae continuously updates its internal state from live infrastructure, changes made by different roles and through different tools do not break alignment or create drift.

A PRACTICAL TERRAFORM ALTERNATIVE

Teams evaluating Terraform alternatives are often looking for better handling of infrastructure drift, safer Day-2 workflows, less reliance on fragile state files, and Infrastructure as Code that works with existing infrastructure.

formae addresses these problems by treating live infrastructure as the source of truth and deriving Infrastructure as Code from an always-current internal state.