Platform Engineering

Platform Engineering

Platform engineering is the discipline of building and maintaining internal developer platforms (IDPs) that enable self-service capabilities for software engineering teams. The goal is to reduce cognitive load, standardize infrastructure provisioning, and accelerate delivery while maintaining governance and security guardrails.

1. When to Use

Adopt platform engineering practices when your organization experiences:

• Cognitive overload on dev teams -- developers spend more time on infrastructure wiring than writing business logic.
• Inconsistent environments -- every team provisions infrastructure differently, causing drift and outages.
• Slow onboarding -- new engineers take weeks to get a working development environment.
• Repeated toil -- the same Terraform/Helm/CI boilerplate is copy-pasted across dozens of repos.
• Compliance bottlenecks -- security and ops reviews gate every deployment, slowing release cadence.
• Scale inflection points -- you have 5+ teams and shared infrastructure concerns (networking, observability, secrets).

Platform engineering is NOT about replacing ops with a portal. It is about encoding organizational standards into reusable, self-service abstractions that dev teams consume through golden paths.

2. Backstage Setup

Backstage is the leading open-source developer portal framework, originally created at Spotify.

Installation

# Prerequisites: Node.js 18+, yarn 1.x
npx @backstage/create-app@latest

# Follow the prompts -- name your app, e.g., "internal-platform"
cd internal-platform

# Start the development server
yarn dev

Production Docker Build

# Dockerfile for Backstage production image
FROM node:18-bookworm-slim AS build
WORKDIR /app

COPY package.json yarn.lock ./
COPY packages/ packages/
COPY plugins/ plugins/

RUN yarn install --frozen-lockfile
RUN yarn tsc
RUN yarn build:backend

FROM node:18-bookworm-slim
WORKDIR /app

COPY --from=build /app/packages/backend/dist/ ./
COPY --from=build /app/node_modules/ ./node_modules/
COPY app-config.yaml app-config.production.yaml ./

ENV NODE_ENV=production
CMD ["node", "packages/backend", "--config", "app-config.production.yaml"]

Core app-config.yaml

# app-config.yaml
app:
  title: Internal Developer Platform
  baseUrl: http://localhost:3000

organization:
  name: MyOrg

backend:
  baseUrl: http://localhost:7007
  listen:
    port: 7007
  database:
    client: pg
    connection:
      host: ${POSTGRES_HOST}
      port: ${POSTGRES_PORT}
      user: ${POSTGRES_USER}
      password: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}

integrations:
  github:
    - host: github.com
      token: ${GITHUB_TOKEN}

catalog:
  import:
    entityFilename: catalog-info.yaml
    pullRequestBranchName: backstage-integration
  rules:
    - allow: [Component, System, API, Resource, Location, Template]
  locations:
    - type: url
      target: https://github.com/myorg/software-catalog/blob/main/catalog-info.yaml
    - type: url
      target: https://github.com/myorg/backstage-templates/blob/main/all-templates.yaml

3. Crossplane for Self-Service Infrastructure

Crossplane extends Kubernetes to provision and manage cloud infrastructure through declarative YAML.

Install Crossplane

# Add the Crossplane Helm repo
helm repo add crossplane-stable https://charts.crossplane.io/stable
helm repo update

# Install Crossplane into its own namespace
helm install crossplane crossplane-stable/crossplane \
  --namespace crossplane-system \
  --create-namespace \
  --set args='{"--enable-composition-revisions"}'

# Install the AWS provider
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: pkg.crossplane.io/v1
kind: Provider
metadata:
  name: provider-aws
spec:
  package: xpkg.upbound.io/upbound/provider-family-aws:v1.1.0
EOF

# Configure AWS credentials
kubectl create secret generic aws-creds \
  -n crossplane-system \
  --from-file=creds=./aws-credentials.txt

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: aws.upbound.io/v1beta1
kind: ProviderConfig
metadata:
  name: default
spec:
  credentials:
    source: Secret
    secretRef:
      namespace: crossplane-system
      name: aws-creds
      key: creds
EOF

CompositeResourceDefinition (XRD)

This defines a new platform API that developers consume without knowing the underlying cloud resources.

# xrd-application-database.yaml
apiVersion: apiextensions.crossplane.io/v1
kind: CompositeResourceDefinition
metadata:
  name: xapplicationdatabases.platform.myorg.io
spec:
  group: platform.myorg.io
  names:
    kind: XApplicationDatabase
    plural: xapplicationdatabases
  claimNames:
    kind: ApplicationDatabase
    plural: applicationdatabases
  versions:
    - name: v1alpha1
      served: true
      referenceable: true
      schema:
        openAPIV3Schema:
          type: object
          properties:
            spec:
              type: object
              properties:
                parameters:
                  type: object
                  properties:
                    engine:
                      type: string
                      enum: ["postgres", "mysql"]
                      default: "postgres"
                    engineVersion:
                      type: string
                      default: "15"
                    storageGB:
                      type: integer
                      minimum: 20
                      maximum: 500
                      default: 20
                    instanceSize:
                      type: string
                      enum: ["small", "medium", "large"]
                      default: "small"
                    environment:
                      type: string
                      enum: ["dev", "staging", "prod"]
                  required:
                    - environment

Composition (AWS RDS)

# composition-aws-database.yaml
apiVersion: apiextensions.crossplane.io/v1
kind: Composition
metadata:
  name: applicationdatabase-aws
  labels:
    provider: aws
spec:
  compositeTypeRef:
    apiVersion: platform.myorg.io/v1alpha1
    kind: XApplicationDatabase
  resources:
    - name: rds-instance
      base:
        apiVersion: rds.aws.upbound.io/v1beta1
        kind: Instance
        spec:
          forProvider:
            region: us-east-1
            allocatedStorage: 20
            autoMinorVersionUpgrade: true
            backupRetentionPeriod: 7
            dbName: appdb
            deletionProtection: false
            publiclyAccessible: false
            skipFinalSnapshot: true
            storageEncrypted: true
            storageType: gp3
            vpcSecurityGroupIdSelector:
              matchLabels:
                platform.myorg.io/network: shared
            dbSubnetGroupNameSelector:
              matchLabels:
                platform.myorg.io/network: shared
      patches:
        - type: FromCompositeFieldPath
          fromFieldPath: spec.parameters.engine
          toFieldPath: spec.forProvider.engine
        - type: FromCompositeFieldPath
          fromFieldPath: spec.parameters.engineVersion
          toFieldPath: spec.forProvider.engineVersion
        - type: FromCompositeFieldPath
          fromFieldPath: spec.parameters.storageGB
          toFieldPath: spec.forProvider.allocatedStorage
        - type: CombineFromComposite
          combine:
            variables:
              - fromFieldPath: spec.parameters.instanceSize
            strategy: map
            map:
              small: db.t3.micro
              medium: db.t3.medium
              large: db.r6g.large
          toFieldPath: spec.forProvider.instanceClass
    - name: db-secret
      base:
        apiVersion: secretstores.aws.upbound.io/v1beta1
        kind: Secret
        spec:
          forProvider:
            region: us-east-1
      patches:
        - type: FromCompositeFieldPath
          fromFieldPath: metadata.name
          toFieldPath: spec.forProvider.name
          transforms:
            - type: string
              string:
                fmt: "platform/%s/db-credentials"

Developer Claim (what devs actually write)

# my-app-database.yaml
apiVersion: platform.myorg.io/v1alpha1
kind: ApplicationDatabase
metadata:
  name: orders-db
  namespace: team-commerce
spec:
  parameters:
    engine: postgres
    engineVersion: "15"
    storageGB: 50
    instanceSize: medium
    environment: staging

4. Golden Paths

Golden paths are opinionated, well-supported paths through your tech stack that teams can follow to ship quickly.

Backstage Software Template

# template-nodejs-service.yaml
apiVersion: scaffolder.backstage.io/v1beta3
kind: Template
metadata:
  name: nodejs-service
  title: Node.js Microservice
  description: Create a production-ready Node.js service with CI/CD, monitoring, and Kubernetes manifests.
  tags:
    - recommended
    - nodejs
spec:
  owner: platform-team
  type: service
  parameters:
    - title: Service Details
      required:
        - name
        - owner
        - system
      properties:
        name:
          title: Service Name
          type: string
          pattern: "^[a-z0-9-]+$"
          ui:autofocus: true
        description:
          title: Description
          type: string
        owner:
          title: Owner Team
          type: string
          ui:field: OwnerPicker
          ui:options:
            catalogFilter:
              kind: Group
        system:
          title: System
          type: string
          ui:field: EntityPicker
          ui:options:
            catalogFilter:
              kind: System
    - title: Infrastructure
      properties:
        database:
          title: Database
          type: string
          enum: ["none", "postgres", "mysql"]
          default: "none"
        cacheLayer:
          title: Cache
          type: string
          enum: ["none", "redis"]
          default: "none"
        environment:
          title: Target Environment
          type: string
          enum: ["dev", "staging", "prod"]
          default: "dev"
  steps:
    - id: fetch-template
      name: Fetch Skeleton
      action: fetch:template
      input:
        url: ./skeleton
        values:
          name: ${{ parameters.name }}
          owner: ${{ parameters.owner }}
          system: ${{ parameters.system }}
          description: ${{ parameters.description }}
          database: ${{ parameters.database }}
          cacheLayer: ${{ parameters.cacheLayer }}
    - id: publish
      name: Publish to GitHub
      action: publish:github
      input:
        allowedHosts: ["github.com"]
        repoUrl: github.com?owner=myorg&repo=${{ parameters.name }}
        repoVisibility: internal
        defaultBranch: main
        protectDefaultBranch: true
        requireCodeOwnerReviews: true
    - id: create-argocd-app
      name: Register with ArgoCD
      action: argocd:create-resources
      input:
        appName: ${{ parameters.name }}
        argoInstance: main
        namespace: ${{ parameters.name }}
        repoUrl: https://github.com/myorg/${{ parameters.name }}
        path: deploy/k8s
    - id: register
      name: Register in Catalog
      action: catalog:register
      input:
        repoContentsUrl: ${{ steps.publish.output.repoContentsUrl }}
        catalogInfoPath: /catalog-info.yaml
  output:
    links:
      - title: Repository
        url: ${{ steps.publish.output.remoteUrl }}
      - title: Open in Backstage
        icon: catalog
        entityRef: ${{ steps.register.output.entityRef }}

Cookiecutter Template Structure

golden-path-nodejs/
  cookiecutter.json
  {{cookiecutter.service_name}}/
    Dockerfile
    package.json
    tsconfig.json
    src/
      index.ts
      health.ts
    deploy/
      k8s/
        deployment.yaml
        service.yaml
        ingress.yaml
    .github/
      workflows/
        ci.yaml
        deploy.yaml
    catalog-info.yaml

// cookiecutter.json
{
  "service_name": "my-service",
  "description": "A new microservice",
  "owner_team": "platform",
  "port": "3000",
  "database": ["none", "postgres", "mysql"],
  "node_version": "18"
}

5. Service Catalog

catalog-info.yaml for a Microservice

# catalog-info.yaml
apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: orders-service
  description: Handles order creation, fulfillment, and tracking.
  annotations:
    backstage.io/techdocs-ref: dir:.
    github.com/project-slug: myorg/orders-service
    backstage.io/kubernetes-id: orders-service
    backstage.io/kubernetes-namespace: team-commerce
    argocd/app-name: orders-service
    pagerduty.com/integration-key: ${PAGERDUTY_KEY}
    grafana/dashboard-selector: "app=orders-service"
  tags:
    - nodejs
    - grpc
  links:
    - url: https://grafana.internal/d/orders-service
      title: Grafana Dashboard
      icon: dashboard
    - url: https://runbooks.internal/orders-service
      title: Runbook
      icon: docs
spec:
  type: service
  lifecycle: production
  owner: team-commerce
  system: commerce-platform
  providesApis:
    - orders-api
  consumesApis:
    - inventory-api
    - payments-api
  dependsOn:
    - resource:orders-db
    - resource:orders-cache

API Entity

# orders-api.yaml
apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: API
metadata:
  name: orders-api
  description: Order management API
  annotations:
    backstage.io/techdocs-ref: dir:.
spec:
  type: openapi
  lifecycle: production
  owner: team-commerce
  system: commerce-platform
  definition:
    $text: ./api/openapi.yaml

TechDocs Configuration

# mkdocs.yml (in the service repo root)
site_name: Orders Service
site_description: Technical documentation for the Orders Service
nav:
  - Home: index.md
  - Architecture: architecture.md
  - API Reference: api-reference.md
  - Runbook: runbook.md
  - ADRs:
      - adr/001-choose-grpc.md
      - adr/002-event-sourcing.md

plugins:
  - techdocs-core

markdown_extensions:
  - admonition
  - pymdownx.details
  - pymdownx.superfences:
      custom_fences:
        - name: mermaid
          class: mermaid
          format: !!python/name:pymdownx.superfences.fence_code_format

Enable TechDocs in app-config.yaml:

techdocs:
  builder: external
  generator:
    runIn: docker
  publisher:
    type: awsS3
    awsS3:
      bucketName: myorg-techdocs
      region: us-east-1
      credentials:
        roleArn: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/techdocs-publisher

6. Developer Portal -- Backstage Plugins

Kubernetes Plugin

# Install Kubernetes plugin
yarn --cwd packages/app add @backstage/plugin-kubernetes
yarn --cwd packages/backend add @backstage/plugin-kubernetes-backend

Backend configuration in app-config.yaml:

kubernetes:
  serviceLocatorMethod:
    type: multiTenant
  clusterLocatorMethods:
    - type: config
      clusters:
        - url: https://k8s-dev.internal:6443
          name: dev-cluster
          authProvider: serviceAccount
          serviceAccountToken: ${K8S_DEV_TOKEN}
          skipTLSVerify: false
          caData: ${K8S_DEV_CA_DATA}
        - url: https://k8s-prod.internal:6443
          name: prod-cluster
          authProvider: serviceAccount
          serviceAccountToken: ${K8S_PROD_TOKEN}
          skipTLSVerify: false
          caData: ${K8S_PROD_CA_DATA}

CI/CD Plugin (GitHub Actions)

# app-config.yaml addition
proxy:
  endpoints:
    /github-actions:
      target: https://api.github.com
      headers:
        Authorization: Bearer ${GITHUB_TOKEN}
        Accept: application/vnd.github+json

Monitoring Plugin (Grafana)

# app-config.yaml addition
grafana:
  domain: https://grafana.internal
  unifiedAlerting: true
proxy:
  endpoints:
    /grafana/api:
      target: https://grafana.internal
      headers:
        Authorization: Bearer ${GRAFANA_API_TOKEN}

7. Score Specification

Score provides a platform-agnostic workload specification so developers describe what they need, and the platform decides how to provision it.

score.yaml

# score.yaml
apiVersion: score.dev/v1b1
metadata:
  name: orders-service
  tags:
    team: commerce
    tier: critical

containers:
  main:
    image: .
    variables:
      PORT: "3000"
      DB_HOST: ${resources.db.host}
      DB_PORT: ${resources.db.port}
      DB_NAME: ${resources.db.name}
      DB_USER: ${resources.db.username}
      DB_PASSWORD: ${resources.db.password}
      CACHE_HOST: ${resources.cache.host}
      CACHE_PORT: ${resources.cache.port}
    ports:
      http:
        port: 3000
        protocol: TCP
    readinessProbe:
      httpGet:
        path: /healthz
        port: 3000
    livenessProbe:
      httpGet:
        path: /healthz
        port: 3000
    resources:
      limits:
        cpu: "500m"
        memory: "512Mi"
      requests:
        cpu: "100m"
        memory: "128Mi"

resources:
  db:
    type: postgres
    properties:
      host:
      port:
      name:
        default: orders
      username:
      password:
  cache:
    type: redis
    properties:
      host:
      port:
  dns:
    type: dns
    properties:
      host:
  sqs:
    type: aws-sqs
    properties:
      queue_url:
      arn:

service:
  ports:
    http:
      port: 80
      targetPort: 3000

Generating Platform-Specific Manifests

# Install score-compose for local development
brew install score-spec/tap/score-compose

# Generate docker-compose from score.yaml
score-compose init
score-compose generate score.yaml

# Install score-k8s for Kubernetes targets
brew install score-spec/tap/score-k8s

# Generate Kubernetes manifests from score.yaml
score-k8s init
score-k8s generate score.yaml

8. Self-Service Workflows

Terraform Module Exposed via Platform API

# modules/environment/main.tf
variable "team_name" {
  type        = string
  description = "Name of the requesting team"
}

variable "environment" {
  type        = string
  description = "Environment tier"
  validation {
    condition     = contains(["dev", "staging", "prod"], var.environment)
    error_message = "Environment must be dev, staging, or prod."
  }
}

variable "services" {
  type = list(object({
    name     = string
    port     = number
    replicas = number
  }))
  description = "List of services to deploy"
}

module "namespace" {
  source      = "../k8s-namespace"
  name        = "${var.team_name}-${var.environment}"
  labels = {
    "platform.myorg.io/team"        = var.team_name
    "platform.myorg.io/environment" = var.environment
  }
}

module "network_policy" {
  source    = "../network-policy"
  namespace = module.namespace.name
  allow_ingress_from = [
    "istio-system",
    "monitoring"
  ]
}

module "resource_quota" {
  source    = "../resource-quota"
  namespace = module.namespace.name
  cpu_limit = var.environment == "prod" ? "16" : "4"
  mem_limit = var.environment == "prod" ? "32Gi" : "8Gi"
}

module "database" {
  for_each  = { for s in var.services : s.name => s if lookup(s, "database", false) }
  source    = "../rds-instance"
  name      = "${var.team_name}-${each.key}"
  engine    = "postgres"
  environment = var.environment
}

output "namespace" {
  value = module.namespace.name
}

output "kubeconfig_command" {
  value = "kubectl config set-context ${var.team_name}-${var.environment} --namespace=${module.namespace.name}"
}

Environment Request CRD (Kubernetes Operator Pattern)

# environment-request.yaml
apiVersion: platform.myorg.io/v1alpha1
kind: EnvironmentRequest
metadata:
  name: commerce-staging
  namespace: platform-system
spec:
  team: commerce
  environment: staging
  ttl: 72h              # auto-cleanup for non-prod
  services:
    - name: orders-service
      port: 3000
      replicas: 2
      database: true
    - name: inventory-service
      port: 3001
      replicas: 2
      database: true
    - name: frontend
      port: 8080
      replicas: 1
      database: false
  notifications:
    slack: "#team-commerce-platform"

Backstage Self-Service Action (Custom Plugin)

// plugins/platform-actions/src/actions/provision-environment.ts
import { createTemplateAction } from '@backstage/plugin-scaffolder-node';
import { Config } from '@backstage/config';

export const provisionEnvironmentAction = (config: Config) => {
  return createTemplateAction<{
    team: string;
    environment: string;
    services: Array<{ name: string; port: number; replicas: number }>;
  }>({
    id: 'platform:provision-environment',
    description: 'Provisions a complete environment for a team',
    schema: {
      input: {
        type: 'object',
        required: ['team', 'environment'],
        properties: {
          team: { type: 'string', title: 'Team Name' },
          environment: {
            type: 'string',
            title: 'Environment',
            enum: ['dev', 'staging', 'prod'],
          },
          services: {
            type: 'array',
            title: 'Services',
            items: {
              type: 'object',
              properties: {
                name: { type: 'string' },
                port: { type: 'number' },
                replicas: { type: 'number' },
              },
            },
          },
        },
      },
    },
    async handler(ctx) {
      const { team, environment, services } = ctx.input;
      const platformApiUrl = config.getString('platform.apiUrl');

      ctx.logger.info(`Provisioning ${environment} for team ${team}`);

      const response = await fetch(`${platformApiUrl}/environments`, {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
        body: JSON.stringify({ team, environment, services }),
      });

      if (!response.ok) {
        throw new Error(`Provisioning failed: ${response.statusText}`);
      }

      const result = await response.json();
      ctx.logger.info(`Environment ready: ${result.namespace}`);
      ctx.output('namespace', result.namespace);
      ctx.output('dashboardUrl', result.dashboardUrl);
    },
  });
};

9. Platform Metrics

DORA Metrics Collection (Prometheus)

# prometheus-rules-dora.yaml
apiVersion: monitoring.coreos.com/v1
kind: PrometheusRule
metadata:
  name: dora-metrics
  namespace: monitoring
spec:
  groups:
    - name: dora.deployment_frequency
      interval: 1h
      rules:
        - record: dora:deployment_frequency:rate1d
          expr: |
            sum by (team, service) (
              increase(argocd_app_sync_total{phase="Succeeded"}[1d])
            )
        - record: dora:deployment_frequency:rate7d
          expr: |
            sum by (team, service) (
              increase(argocd_app_sync_total{phase="Succeeded"}[7d])
            ) / 7

    - name: dora.lead_time
      interval: 1h
      rules:
        - record: dora:lead_time_seconds:avg
          expr: |
            avg by (team, service) (
              github_workflow_duration_seconds{workflow="deploy", status="success"}
            )

    - name: dora.change_failure_rate
      interval: 1h
      rules:
        - record: dora:change_failure_rate:ratio
          expr: |
            sum by (team, service) (
              increase(argocd_app_sync_total{phase="Failed"}[7d])
            )
            /
            sum by (team, service) (
              increase(argocd_app_sync_total[7d])
            )

    - name: dora.mttr
      interval: 1h
      rules:
        - record: dora:mttr_seconds:avg
          expr: |
            avg by (team, service) (
              pagerduty_incident_resolve_duration_seconds
            )

Grafana Dashboard (JSON Model Snippet)

{
  "dashboard": {
    "title": "Platform Engineering -- DORA & Adoption",
    "panels": [
      {
        "title": "Deployment Frequency (daily avg, 7d)",
        "type": "stat",
        "targets": [
          { "expr": "dora:deployment_frequency:rate7d", "legendFormat": "{{team}}/{{service}}" }
        ]
      },
      {
        "title": "Lead Time for Changes",
        "type": "gauge",
        "targets": [
          { "expr": "dora:lead_time_seconds:avg / 3600", "legendFormat": "{{team}} (hours)" }
        ]
      },
      {
        "title": "Change Failure Rate",
        "type": "gauge",
        "targets": [
          { "expr": "dora:change_failure_rate:ratio * 100", "legendFormat": "{{team}} %" }
        ],
        "fieldConfig": {
          "defaults": {
            "thresholds": {
              "steps": [
                { "color": "green", "value": 0 },
                { "color": "yellow", "value": 15 },
                { "color": "red", "value": 30 }
              ]
            }
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "title": "Platform Adoption -- Scaffolded Repos",
        "type": "timeseries",
        "targets": [
          { "expr": "sum(backstage_scaffolder_task_count_total{status='completed'})", "legendFormat": "Total scaffolded" }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Developer Experience Survey (Automated Collection)

# cronjob-devex-survey.yaml
apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
  name: devex-survey-reminder
  namespace: platform-system
spec:
  schedule: "0 10 1 */3 *"     # quarterly, 1st of month at 10am
  jobTemplate:
    spec:
      template:
        spec:
          containers:
            - name: survey-bot
              image: myorg/platform-bot:latest
              env:
                - name: SLACK_WEBHOOK
                  valueFrom:
                    secretKeyRef:
                      name: platform-bot-secrets
                      key: slack-webhook
                - name: SURVEY_URL
                  value: "https://forms.internal/devex-q1"
              command:
                - /bin/sh
                - -c
                - |
                  curl -X POST "$SLACK_WEBHOOK" \
                    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
                    -d "{
                      \"text\": \"Hey team! It's time for our quarterly Developer Experience survey. Your feedback directly shapes platform priorities. Please take 5 minutes: ${SURVEY_URL}\"
                    }"
          restartPolicy: OnFailure

10. Governance -- Policy Enforcement

OPA/Gatekeeper Constraint Templates

# constraint-template-approved-base-images.yaml
apiVersion: templates.gatekeeper.sh/v1
kind: ConstraintTemplate
metadata:
  name: k8sapprovedbaseimages
spec:
  crd:
    spec:
      names:
        kind: K8sApprovedBaseImages
      validation:
        openAPIV3Schema:
          type: object
          properties:
            allowedRegistries:
              type: array
              items:
                type: string
  targets:
    - target: admission.k8s.gatekeeper.sh
      rego: |
        package k8sapprovedbaseimages

        violation[{"msg": msg}] {
          container := input.review.object.spec.containers[_]
          not startswith_any(container.image, input.parameters.allowedRegistries)
          msg := sprintf(
            "Container '%s' uses image '%s' which is not from an approved registry. Allowed: %v",
            [container.name, container.image, input.parameters.allowedRegistries]
          )
        }

        startswith_any(str, prefixes) {
          prefix := prefixes[_]
          startswith(str, prefix)
        }
---
apiVersion: constraints.gatekeeper.sh/v1beta1
kind: K8sApprovedBaseImages
metadata:
  name: approved-registries
spec:
  match:
    kinds:
      - apiGroups: [""]
        kinds: ["Pod"]
    namespaceSelector:
      matchExpressions:
        - key: platform.myorg.io/environment
          operator: Exists
  parameters:
    allowedRegistries:
      - "myorg.azurecr.io/"
      - "gcr.io/myorg-"
      - "public.ecr.aws/myorg/"

Kyverno Policies

# kyverno-require-labels.yaml
apiVersion: kyverno.io/v1
kind: ClusterPolicy
metadata:
  name: require-platform-labels
  annotations:
    policies.kyverno.io/title: Require Platform Labels
    policies.kyverno.io/description: >-
      All workloads must include standard platform labels for
      cost attribution, ownership tracking, and incident routing.
spec:
  validationFailureAction: Enforce
  background: true
  rules:
    - name: check-required-labels
      match:
        any:
          - resources:
              kinds:
                - Deployment
                - StatefulSet
                - DaemonSet
      validate:
        message: >-
          All workloads must have the labels: platform.myorg.io/team,
          platform.myorg.io/environment, platform.myorg.io/cost-center.
          Found labels: {{request.object.metadata.labels}}
        pattern:
          metadata:
            labels:
              platform.myorg.io/team: "?*"
              platform.myorg.io/environment: "?*"
              platform.myorg.io/cost-center: "?*"
    - name: inject-default-security-context
      match:
        any:
          - resources:
              kinds:
                - Pod
      mutate:
        patchStrategicMerge:
          spec:
            securityContext:
              runAsNonRoot: true
              seccompProfile:
                type: RuntimeDefault
            containers:
              - (name): "*"
                securityContext:
                  allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
                  readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
                  capabilities:
                    drop:
                      - ALL

Platform-Level Network Policies

# network-policy-platform-defaults.yaml
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: NetworkPolicy
metadata:
  name: platform-default-deny
  namespace: "{{namespace}}"
spec:
  podSelector: {}
  policyTypes:
    - Ingress
    - Egress
  ingress:
    - from:
        - namespaceSelector:
            matchLabels:
              platform.myorg.io/system: ingress-gateway
        - namespaceSelector:
            matchLabels:
              platform.myorg.io/system: monitoring
          podSelector:
            matchLabels:
              app: prometheus
  egress:
    - to:
        - namespaceSelector: {}
          podSelector:
            matchLabels:
              k8s-app: kube-dns
      ports:
        - protocol: UDP
          port: 53
        - protocol: TCP
          port: 53
    - to:
        - namespaceSelector:
            matchLabels:
              name: "{{namespace}}"
    - to:
        - ipBlock:
            cidr: 0.0.0.0/0
            except:
              - 10.0.0.0/8
              - 172.16.0.0/12
              - 192.168.0.0/16
      ports:
        - protocol: TCP
          port: 443

Summary

A well-built internal developer platform combines these layers:

The platform team ships the platform as a product. Developers are the customers. Measure success by adoption, not by mandate.