Save time with Service Creation templates

With no standardized process for creating services, developers are left to their own devices, losing time pinging others for help, submitting requests, or simply taking action without guidelines. Instead of wasting this time and replicating work, platform engineers can use our Service Creation feature to build templates that include best practices from the get-go. This gives product developers a fast way to start building without hesitation, and takes repetitive, mundane tasks off the platform team’s plate. Here’s the gist of Service Creation in OpsLevel. 

For a more detailed walkthrough of the technical set up, check out our technical documentation here.

Setting up Service Creation 

Admins are the only users that can create or import service templates, and make them available to use. That way, you avoid unauthorized changes or non-approved templates and know your organization’s best practices are always baked in.

The foundation of Service Creation in OpsLevel lies in Cookiecutter templates, which are tool and language agnostic. Admins can import existing Cookiecutter templates, or source them from public GitHub repos to meet their needs and requirements. Check out the Cookiecutter project documentation for more help.

Importing Cookiecutter templates

When you have a template ready to import, you just need to provide OpsLevel the URL to the Cookeicutter JSON file, along with essential details such as name, description, language, and framework. Admins can also build in custom actions to the template, setting up a webhook to trigger everyday workflows (like opening a pull request) when the template is used. From here, you’ll authorize the template for official team use and it will show up as an option when users navigate to the service creation page.

Creating a service from a template

Once a template is available in the self-service hub, developers can use it to quickly spin up new services. Services created from templates automatically get added to the catalog, ensuring visibility and ongoing service tracking. Service code files generated from the template can be incorporated into a git repository and be added directly with your git forge by integrating GitHub, GitLab, or Azure DevOps with your OpsLevel instance, or by manually doing it using files generated from the template.

For customers who prefer maintaining service metadata through Opslevel.yaml, we recommend customizing the Cookiecutter template to create this file using user inputs and other parameters from the service creation flow.

Creating a service from a template instills confidence in both platform engineers and developers, ensuring that new projects begin with a solid foundation. It saves developers time, meaning they can focus on writing and shipping software, while giving platform teams the confidence that each service is starting with the right foundation to preempt future maintenance and tech debt. Making sure services are created correctly from day one is key to proper service ownership and thereby service maturity overall.