Modern software development is moving at a rapid pace. Teams code multiple times a day. New environments appear and disappear constantly. In this world, manual infrastructure setup just doesn’t scale.
For years, developers logged into dashboards, clicked through forms, and configured servers by hand. It worked for small projects, but it soon became critical. Each manual step increased the potential for errors. The atmosphere fell apart. Reproducing the same setup became difficult.
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solves this problem. Instead of clicking through an interface, developers define the infrastructure using code. This approach makes infrastructure predictable, repeatable, and easy to automate.
In recent years, another approach has become popular alongside traditional IaC tools: using cloud APIs directly to create and manage infrastructure. It gives developers complete control over how resources are delivered and integrated into workflows.
This article explains what infrastructure means as code, why APIs are a powerful way to implement it, and how developers can automate cloud resources using simple scripts.
A basic understanding of cloud platforms, command-line interfaces, and scripting languages ​​such as Python, Bash, or JavaScript will help you follow through effectively. Familiarity with APIs, authentication methods, and CI/CD concepts will also make it easier to implement the automation techniques discussed in this article.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
What is infrastructure as code?
Infrastructure as code means managing infrastructure using code rather than manual processes.
Instead of configuring servers, databases, and networks by hand, you define them in scripts or configuration files. These files describe the desired state of your infrastructure. A tool or script then automatically creates and maintains this state.
For example, instead of creating the database manually, you can define it in code like this:
database:
name: app_db
engine: postgres
version: 16
Once the code runs, the database is created automatically.
This approach provides several important advantages.
First, it improves consistency. Each environment is created by the same definition. Development, staging, and production environments are interconnected.
Second, it improves repeatability. If the infrastructure fails, it can be rebuilt from code in minutes.
Third, it improves version control. Infrastructure definitions reside in the same repositories as application code. Teams can review, track and roll back changes.
Finally, it enables automation. Infrastructure can be created during deployment, test, or CI/CD pipelines.
Manual infrastructure limitations
Before IaC became commonplace, infrastructure management relied heavily on dashboards and manual configuration.
A developer would open the cloud console and perform steps such as:
These measures worked, but they introduced problems.
First, manual configuration is difficult to document. Even if teams write guides, small details are often missed. As time passes, the environment separates.
Manual processes also slow down development. Circulating a new environment can take hours instead of seconds.
Even worse, manual infrastructure cannot be easily tested. If something breaks, it becomes difficult to reproduce the same conditions.
Infrastructure as a rule solves these problems by turning infrastructure into something that can be scripted, tested, and automated.
Many people associate infrastructure as code with tools like Terraform or CloudFormation. These tools are powerful, but they are not the only option.
Every modern cloud platform exposes an API. That API allows developers to programmatically create resources.
This means that the infrastructure can be controlled directly from code using HTTP requests or a command line interface.
There are several advantages to using APIs for IaC.
First, it offers maximum flexibility. Developers can integrate infrastructure creation directly into applications, deployment scripts, or internal tools.
Second, it reduces tooling complexity. Instead of learning a specialized IaC language, teams can use languages ​​they already know, such as Python, JavaScript, or Bash.
Third, it enables dynamic infrastructure. The script can create resources only when needed, scale them automatically, and remove them when the task is complete.
For example, a test suite can automatically create a database, run tests, and later delete the database. This keeps the environment clean and costs down.
APIs essentially turn the cloud into a programmable platform.
Automate infrastructure with scripts
Using APIs for infrastructure automation typically follows a simple workflow.
First, a script authenticates with the cloud platform using API tokens or credentials.
Second, the script sends requests to create or modify resources such as applications, databases, or storage.
Third, the script retrieves the identifiers or sequence values ​​from the response.
Finally, these values ​​are used in later steps, such as deployment or integration.
Because these steps run in code, they can be easily integrated into CI/CD pipelines.
A typical pipeline might do the following:
This approach ensures that every deployment follows the same process.
Practical example with Sevalla
A practical way to implement infrastructure as code through APIs is to use a command-line interface that interacts directly with the cloud platform’s API. It lets you automate infrastructure creation using scripts instead of dashboards.
Here is an example. Sevilla CLIwhich represents infrastructure operations as terminal commands that can be run manually or within automation pipelines.
Seoul is a developer-focused PaaS designed to simplify your workflow. They provide high-performance application hosting, managed databases, object storage, and static sites in a unified platform.
Other options are AWS and Azure, which require complex CLI tools and heavy DevOps overhead. Sevalla offers the same simplicity and ease of use as Heroku.
Installing the CLI
You can install the CLI using the following shell command.
bash <(curl -fsSL
Once installed, you can view a list of all available commands using help Order:
The first step is validation. Make sure you have an account on Sevalla before using the CLI.
sevalla login
For automated environments such as CI/CD pipelines, authentication can be done with an API token. The token is stored in an environment variable so that the script can run without user interaction.
export SEVALLA_API_TOKEN="your-api-token"
Once verified, you can quickly view your list of apps using sevalla apps list
Working with your infrastructure using the CLI
Your infrastructure can now be built directly from the command line. For example, you can start by creating an application service that will run the backend code.
sevalla apps create --name myapp --source privateGit --cluster
This command provides a new application resource on the platform. Instead of navigating through a web interface and filling out forms, the entire setup is performed via a single command.
Because the command can be stored in scripts or configuration files, it becomes part of the project’s infrastructure definition.
After building an application, you’ll often need a database. You can also provide it programmatically:
sevalla databases create \
--name mydb \
--type postgresql \
--db-version 16 \
--cluster \
--resource-type \
--db-name mydb \
--db-password secret
It creates a PostgreSQL database with a specified version and credentials. In an automated workflow, the database creation step can run during the setup of the environment for staging or testing.
After the application and database are in place, the next step will be setting the environment variables so that the application can connect to the database:
sevalla apps env-vars create --key DATABASE_URL --value "postgres://..."
These configuration values ​​can be injected during deployment, ensuring that the application always receives the correct settings.
Deployment automation is another important part of infrastructure as code. Instead of manually triggering deployments, a script can deploy new code whenever a repository is updated.
sevalla apps deployments trigger --branch main
This allows CI/CD systems to automatically deploy new versions of an application after tests pass.
Infrastructure automation also includes scaling and monitoring. For example, if an application needs more instances to handle the traffic, you can update the number of running processes programmatically.
sevalla apps processes update --app-id --instances 3
You can also get the metrics through the CLI. It allows monitoring tools or scripts to analyze system performance.
sevalla apps processes metrics cpu-usage
Similarly, you can also request rates to detect application metrics such as response time or performance issues.
Another common step in infrastructure automation is configuring domains. Instead of manually associating domains with applications, a script can add them during environment setup.
sevalla apps domains add --name example.com
By combining these commands into scripts or pipelines, you can fully automate the lifecycle of your infrastructure. A CI pipeline can build an application, provision a database, set environment variables, deploy code, attach domains, and monitor performance – all without human intervention.
Since each command supports JSON output, scripts can also capture values ​​returned by the platform and reuse them in later steps. For example:
APP_ID=$(sevalla apps list --json | jq -r '.(0).id')
This ability to chain commands together makes it easy to build powerful automation workflows.
In practice, teams often place these commands within deployment scripts or pipeline steps. Whenever code is pushed to a repository, the pipeline automatically provisions or updates the infrastructure needed to run the application.
This approach shows how APIs and automation tools can transform infrastructure into something the way you can manage application code: through scripts, version control, and automated workflows.
Infrastructure as a rule improves developer productivity.
One of the biggest benefits of infrastructure as code is developer productivity.
Developers no longer need to wait for infrastructure changes or configure environments manually.
Instead, infrastructure becomes part of the development workflow.
When a new feature requires a service, the developer simply adds the infrastructure definition to the repository. Pipeline then builds it automatically.
This reduces latency and keeps development moving faster.
It also makes onboarding easier. New team members can create an entire environment with a single command.
The future of infrastructure
Cloud infrastructure continues to evolve towards automation and programmability.
Platforms increasingly expose APIs that allow each resource to be created, configured, and monitored through code.
This trend naturally fits with the way developers already work.
Applications are built with code. Deployments are automated with code. It makes sense that infrastructure should also be defined with code.
Infrastructure as code with APIs takes this idea even further. This allows the infrastructure to be embedded directly into development workflows, pipelines, and internal devices.
The result is faster development, fewer configuration errors, and a more reliable system.
The result
Infrastructure as code has changed how teams manage their cloud environments.
By replacing manual configuration with code, organizations gain consistency, automation, and repeatability.
Using APIs to control the infrastructure adds another level of flexibility. Developers can integrate the infrastructure directly into scripts, pipelines, and applications.
This approach turns the cloud into a programmable platform.
As systems become more complex and deployment cycles become faster, the ability to automate infrastructure will only become more important.
For modern development teams, presenting infrastructure as code is no longer optional. It is the foundation of reliable and scalable software delivery.
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