HCP Waypoint now GA with enhancements to golden workflow capabilities

Initially announced at HashiConf 2023, HCP Waypoint templates and add-ons let platform teams abstract and share standardized application deployment patterns with developers, without making them worry about the infrastructure details. Today, we’re pleased to announce the general availability of HCP Waypoint as well as its templates and add-ons.

Alongside the GA announcement, we are releasing variable support in beta for HCP Waypoint actions — a Day 2+ capability first introduced in beta in June 2024. Variables in Waypoint actions allow platform teams to specify input variables and their values when creating actions. Platform teams can also choose which input values developers should provide. These variables give platform teams additional ways to customize actions to accommodate various use cases while accepting inputs from developers who trigger these actions. These input values can then be passed to the upstream APIs, operations, or CI/CD workflows.

»New features in GA

During the beta period of HCP Waypoint templates and add-ons, we collected feedback from customers that led us to include new capabilities in the GA release:

• Upgrade workflow for templates
• API support

»Upgrade workflow for templates

As part of the GA release, we are introducing a new upgrade workflow that enables platform teams to update golden patterns defined by Waypoint templates and send those updates to application developers, allowing them to upgrade their applications accordingly.

Platform engineers can use Waypoint templates that build on no-code ready modules, present in HCP Terraform to define golden patterns in their organization. As these golden patterns evolve, platform engineers update the underlying Terraform no-code module to reflect those changes. With HCP Waypoint templates’ new upgrade capability, these updates by platform engineers are pushed to any applications created using these templates.

Template updates help application developers keep their applications up-to-date with the latest golden patterns in their organization. They also allow platform teams to give their application developers an upgrade path for their Waypoint-deployed applications.

»HCP API support

In June 2024, we announced HCP CLI and Terraform provider support for HCP Waypoint to give users flexibility in how they interface with HCP Waypoint. We now support using the HCP API to access Waypoint resources such as templates, add-ons, and applications. This lets platform and development teams build on top of HCP Waypoint with even more flexibility.

Here is an example usage of the HCP API to list HCP Waypoint templates:

»Variables support for actions (beta)

Waypoint actions (currently in beta) let platform teams seamlessly expose Day 2+ operations and workflows to their application developers, providing a push-button experience to enable operations such as build promotions, rollbacks, and modifying feature flags. Modifying each action for every use case can be slow and may cause duplication. Given the variety of Day 2+ use cases, platform teams need to parameterize these actions to ease customization and reusability.

Now, platform teams can specify local variables that allow them to parameterize Waypoint actions. The values of the variables can be set by the platform team or can be requested as input when an application developer runs an action. Variable inputs for actions also support sensitive values, allowing platform teams to designate certain values for variables, such as API tokens, as sensitive.

Variables in actions allow application developers to supply values when running Waypoint actions. These values are based on the variables that are being requested by the actions defined by the platform teams. Some examples of values that could be requested during action execution include:

• Build IDs for build promotions or deployments
• Feature flag details, such as name, when toggling feature flags

Overall, variable inputs enable better composability, customization, and end-to-end Day 2+ workflows for organizations that are tailored to meet the specific needs of application developers.

»HCP Waypoint at US Venture

HCP Waypoint has already been making inroads at major firms. HCP Waypoint templates and add-ons are already providing value to customers. Andy Plamann, a Senior Solutions Architect of– Platform Engineering, at US Venture, says:

"We are currently in the process of developing a new internal development platform. After careful consideration, we have chosen the HashiCorp stack of tools due to their exceptional quality and ease of implementation. One aspect that was lacking was a portal for our development teams to use, in order to make the entire process completely self-service. Waypoint has effectively addressed this need." In addition, Plamann notes, "The flexibility of Waypoint has allowed us to create templates and add-ons that cover every pattern and middleware component in our platform in a fully automated, self-service manner, requiring minimal effort and time for setup. This has significantly expedited the platform's launch and its readiness for use by our development teams. And it has notably reduced the learning curve for our development teams in utilizing the platform.”

»Get started with HCP Waypoint

HCP Waypoint templates and add-ons are available as part of HCP Terraform Plus, and we are excited for users to try them. HCP Waypoint actions are also available on a trial basis for HCP Terraform Plus customers. If you don’t already have one, we recommend getting started by creating an HCP account and giving HCP Waypoint a try.

Sign up for HCP Waypoint on the HCP portal. To learn more about HCP Waypoint, visit the HCP Waypoint product page, or refer to the HCP Waypoint documentation.