Learn PULUMI with Real Code Examples

Updated Nov 27, 2025

Introduction & Fundamentals Setup & Configuration Architecture & Deep Internals Performance & Security Development Workflow Learning & Career Growth Business & Strategy Examples

Explain

Enables infrastructure provisioning using code rather than declarative templates.

Supports multiple cloud providers including AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, and more.

Allows developers to leverage programming constructs like loops, functions, and abstractions for infrastructure.

Provides a unified model for managing both cloud and on-prem resources.

Integrates with CI/CD pipelines for automated provisioning and updates.

Core Features

Resource abstraction for cloud services

Stack management for isolated environments

Dependency graph handling for infrastructure

Real-time diff and preview of changes

CLI and SDKs for multiple languages

Basic Concepts Overview

Stack - isolated environment for infrastructure state

Resource - individual cloud or Kubernetes entity

Program - code defining infrastructure

Outputs - exposed values from a stack

Secrets - encrypted sensitive data

Project Structure

Pulumi.yaml - project configuration

Pulumi.<stack>.yaml - stack-specific configuration

index.ts / main.py / main.go - main infrastructure program

node_modules or virtual environment - SDK dependencies

tests/ - infrastructure tests or mocks

Building Workflow

Write infrastructure code in supported language

Run pulumi preview to see changes

Run pulumi up to apply changes

Inspect stack outputs and monitor resources

Update or destroy infrastructure with pulumi update/destroy

Difficulty Use Cases

Beginner: single cloud stack deployment

Intermediate: multi-service application on cloud

Advanced: multi-cloud deployments with abstractions

Expert: CI/CD-integrated automated provisioning

Enterprise: multi-team governance and policy enforcement

Comparisons

Pulumi vs Terraform: general-purpose language vs HCL DSL

Pulumi vs CloudFormation: multi-cloud vs AWS-specific

Pulumi vs Ansible: declarative vs imperative code

Pulumi vs CDK: SDK-based vs cloud-native libraries

Pulumi vs Chef/Puppet: IaC code vs configuration management

Versioning Timeline

2017 - Pulumi founded and initial release

2018 - Support for multiple cloud providers added

2019 - Pulumi Automation API introduced

2020 - Policy as Code and secrets management released

2025 - Mature multi-cloud, hybrid, and Kubernetes support

Glossary

Stack - isolated environment for resources

Resource - cloud or Kubernetes object

Pulumi.yaml - project config

Output - exported stack value