Overview

Date: 2026-05-11

Time: 15:22

Overview

The FTL2 roadmap outlines planned features across three time horizons: near-term (Terraform provider integration, multi-cloud validation, module discovery API, policy engine improvements), medium-term (declarative resource planning, Ansible-to-FTL2 converter, transaction/rollback), and longer-term (event-driven workflows, desired state as markdown). The roadmap reveals FTL2's strategic direction toward becoming a unified automation platform that bridges Ansible modules, Terraform providers, and AI-driven infrastructure management.

Key Concepts

• Terraform Provider Integration — access 3000+ Terraform providers via gRPC protocol bridge (Python to Go), with state mapping to .ftl2-state.json and plan/apply semantics
• Module Discovery API — runtime module discovery (ftl.list_modules(), ftl.describe()) designed specifically for AI-generated scripts to select correct modules
• Declarative Resource Planning — Terraform-style resource declarations with automatic dependency inference, topological sort for parallel execution waves, and reverse-order teardown
• Ansible-to-FTL2 Converter — bidirectional conversion mapping hosts→group proxies, vars→Python variables, with_items→for loops, when→if statements, handlers→explicit restarts, roles→function calls
• Transaction/Rollback — atomic operations across multiple modules with explicit rollback on failure and savepoint/restore patterns
• Desired State as Markdown — natural-language infrastructure specs where AI generates disposable scripts, state file is ground truth, and drift detection compares spec against actual state

Commands and Syntax

# Module Discovery API (planned)
ftl.list_modules(category=None)
ftl.describe(module_name)

# Declarative Resource Planning (planned)
plan = ftl.resources()
vpc = plan.vpc("main", cidr="10.0.0.0/16")
subnet = plan.subnet(vpc_id=vpc["vpc_id"])  # dependency inferred
await plan.apply()   # topological sort, parallel execution waves
await plan.destroy()  # reverse order teardown

Policy Engine Improvements (planned):

• Rule short-circuiting (not just deny)
• Policy validation on load (warn about unknown match keys)
• Policy composition (multiple files, directory of policies)
• Policy summary surfaced in audit log

Relationships

• Terraform providers extend the module ecosystem beyond Ansible collections, connecting to the existing module calling patterns and state management system
• Module Discovery API connects to the AI-loop rules system — AI agents need runtime introspection to select modules
• Multi-cloud validation proves the automation context API (inventory, group proxies) is cloud-agnostic
• Declarative resource planning builds on the existing .ftl2-state.json state tracking and idempotency model
• Ansible-to-FTL2 converter directly relates to migration from Ansible — formalizes the mapping that users currently do manually
• Transaction/rollback extends the existing crash recovery and state file mechanisms
• Event-driven workflows builds on the gate process architecture (gate modules emitting events back to controller)
• Desired state as markdown connects state files, drift detection, and AI-generated scripts into a single workflow

Exam-Relevant Points

• Terraform integration requires a gRPC protocol bridge from Python to Go — FTL2 is Python, Terraform providers are Go
• State from Terraform providers maps to the same .ftl2-state.json format used by native FTL2 state tracking
• The Ansible-to-FTL2 conversion mappings are specific: with_items→for loops, when→if statements, handlers→explicit service restarts, roles→function calls
• Declarative resource planning uses topological sort for parallel execution and reverse order for teardown
• Module Discovery API has two functions: list_modules (browse by category) and describe (detailed parameter info)
• In the desired-state-as-markdown model, scripts are disposable/regenerated — the state file is ground truth, not the scripts
• Policy engine improvements include composition (multiple files) and validation on load, but short-circuiting means rules can do more than just deny