Lifecycle controls

Lifecycle policy lets a template state how Praxis should treat a resource after provisioning.

resources: database: {
  apiVersion: "praxis.io/alpha"
  kind: "RDSInstance"
  metadata: {name: "payments-primary", labels: {}}
  spec: {
    // Resource fields omitted for clarity.
  }
  lifecycle: {
    preventDestroy: true
    managedDriftCorrection: true
    ignoreChanges: ["spec.tags.external-controller"]
  }
}

preventDestroy

Blocks a delete or replacement that would destroy the external resource. Praxis reports the policy conflict instead of silently bypassing it.

managedDriftCorrection

Controls whether reconciliation writes changes back to AWS.

• true: detected drift is corrected toward the declared specification.
• false: detected drift is reported without writes. The resource remains healthy under the requested policy and carries drift context.

ignoreChanges

Excludes selected fields from desired-versus-observed comparison. Use it when another controller legitimately owns a field. Avoid broad ignore rules because they reduce the state Praxis can verify.

Replacement

Some AWS fields are immutable. A plan reports when a change requires replacement. The user can explicitly target replacement or allow it for the deployment. Praxis does not infer permission to destroy protected infrastructure.

Full reference

For lifecycle state, conditions, drift policy, import modes, replacement, and driver hooks, see Generic drivers in the GitHub documentation.