Moreover, Platform Engineering Labs launches open-source IaC platform with automatic discovery, PKL language, and agent-based architecture addressing legacy toolchain limitations.
Platform Engineering Labs unveiled formae on October 22, 2025, introducing what the New York-based company describes as the first major infrastructure-as-code innovation in nearly a decade. Specifically, the open-source platform targets fundamental problems plaguing existing IaC tools: cloud environment drift, fragile state management, and sprawling multi-cloud estates that resist codification.
According to Pavlo Baron, co-founder and CEO of Platform Engineering Labs, formae emerged from direct operational experience with infrastructure management challenges. “We built formae out of our own pain,” Baron explained. “It is the first platform that starts from reality, not from an idealised plan. It accepts even the messiest truth of any cloud environment and provides a safe, reliable way to evolve it.”
Dual-Mode Operation Addresses Real-World Infrastructure
Unlike traditional infrastructure-as-code tools requiring clean-slate deployments, formae operates in two distinct modes designed for existing environments. First, reconcile mode aligns desired environment states with actual production infrastructure. Second, patch mode enables operators to apply incremental changes without full environment recreation.
Furthermore, formae eliminates explicit state file management entirely by treating production reality as the authoritative state, versioned directly in code. This approach contrasts sharply with Terraform and similar tools that maintain separate state files tracking resource ownership and configuration.
Additionally, formae implements an agent-based architecture that decouples state management from client operations. This separation reduces the fragility common in tools where client interruptions or state file corruption can leave infrastructure in undefined states.
Automatic Discovery Differentiates from Terraform Workflow
Perhaps most significantly, formae automatically discovers and codifies existing infrastructure across cloud estates. The platform maps every running resource regardless of original creation method—whether through Terraform, OpenTofu, Pulumi, manual cloud console operations, or legacy scripts.
This capability addresses a common migration challenge where organizations maintain infrastructure created through multiple methods over years. Traditional infrastructure-as-code tools require engineers to manually import resources and reconstruct configurations, a time-consuming and error-prone process.
Moreover, formae’s automatic discovery enables teams to establish infrastructure-as-code practices without disruptive rearchitecture. Organizations can codify existing environments incrementally, reducing risk compared to “lift and shift” migrations that recreate infrastructure from scratch.