Best Practices for Managing AWS WAF with Code

Short summary

A practical guide to managing AWS WAF at scale using Terraform, treating WAF as a small policy engine where rules classify traffic, labels carry facts, and cleanup rules make final decisions. Key recommendations include splitting WAF objects into separate Terraform states by lifecycle, separating rule logic from resource metadata using YAML or JSON, and treating labels as a structured internal API with consistent naming conventions.

• •Model AWS WAF as a policy engine: classify, label, then decide
• •Split WAF objects into separate Terraform states by lifecycle and scope
• •Use structured label namespaces like app:surface:login for maintainable rule logic

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