--- title: Some Data Should Be Code | daily.dev description: Build systems and infrastructure tools like Make, CloudFormation, and GitHub Actions force developers to write static configuration files that lack abstraction... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/some-data-should-be-code-tjcjklg9y twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Some Data Should Be Code | daily.dev og:description: Build systems and infrastructure tools like Make, CloudFormation, and GitHub Actions force developers to write static configuration files that lack abstraction... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/some-data-should-be-code-tjcjklg9y og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/tJCjkLG9y.png og:image:alt: Some Data Should Be Code og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Some Data Should Be Code **[Lobsters](https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters)** · 4 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Build systems and infrastructure tools like Make, CloudFormation, and GitHub Actions force developers to write static configuration files that lack abstraction capabilities. When these declarative formats become too limited, developers resort to generating them with real programming languages. Tools like doit and AWS CDK demonstrate a better approach: using actual code to define build graphs and infrastructure, gaining type safety, modularity, and control flow for free. The industry should embrace code-first approaches rather than building DSLs in data formats that inevitably require code generation anyway. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Platform-as-a-Product: Declarative Infrastructure for Developer Velocity](https://daily.dev/posts/platform-as-a-product-declarative-infrastructure-for-developer-velocity-btu5k9qhs) · InfoQ · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [There should be an app for that](https://daily.dev/posts/there-should-be-an-app-for-that-uiole5bw7) · ITNEXT · 5 upvotes · 1 comments - [Company as Code](https://daily.dev/posts/company-as-code-nqleuqd7s) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Infrastructure as Code with APIs: How to Automate Cloud Resources the Developer Way](https://daily.dev/posts/infrastructure-as-code-with-apis-how-to-automate-cloud-resources-the-developer-way-6bbfaerso) · freeCodeCamp · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#python](https://daily.dev/tags/python), [#aws](https://daily.dev/tags/aws), [#devops](https://daily.dev/tags/devops), [#iac](https://daily.dev/tags/iac) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/some-data-should-be-code-tjcjklg9y) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Some Data Should Be Code","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/some-data-should-be-code-tjcjklg9y","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/some-data-should-be-code-tjcjklg9y"},"datePublished":"2026-01-31T17:40:10.828Z","dateModified":"2026-01-31T17:40:32.346Z","description":"Build systems and infrastructure tools like Make, CloudFormation, and GitHub Actions force developers to write static configuration files that lack abstraction...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d22d1b2f0f799116b15a52c94df63427?_a=AQAEulh","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d22d1b2f0f799116b15a52c94df63427?_a=AQAEulh","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Lobsters","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Lobsters","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--tl8v_Fku--/f_auto,t_logo/v1698841318/logos/lobste.jpg","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/some-data-should-be-code-tjcjklg9y","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"python,aws,devops,iac","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lobsters","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Some Data Should Be Code"}]} ```