Golden Paths

What it is

Golden paths are recommended (not mandatory) paths for common development tasks. They're pre-built templates, workflows, and configurations incorporating the organization's best practices.

Examples

• Template for new microservice (with CI/CD, observability, tests)
• Standard workflow for deploying to production
• Database configuration with backups and monitoring
• ML pipeline with experiment tracking

Golden Path vs Mandate

Key principle

Doing the right thing should be easier than doing the wrong thing. If the golden path is harder than the ad-hoc path, nobody will use it.

How to build a golden path

1. Identify the repetitive task — what do teams do over and over?
2. Document the current path — what steps does the most effective team follow?
3. Automate — turn those steps into a template or script
4. Make it the default — the golden path should be what appears when someone starts a new project
5. Iterate — collect feedback and continuously improve

Why it matters

Golden paths reduce cognitive load by providing tested, documented paths for common tasks. Instead of every team reinventing how to create a service, deploy an application, or configure observability, they follow a path that already works.

References

• Golden Paths — Spotify Engineering, 2020. How Spotify uses golden paths to reduce fragmentation.
• Team Topologies — Skelton and Pais, 2019. The "platform as a product" concept that underpins golden paths.
• Software Templates — Backstage — Backstage, 2024. Golden paths implementation with templates.