# How to Test Infrastructure as Code

DevFeed: [How to Test Infrastructure as Code](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/how-to-test-infrastructure-as-code-19005.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.pulumi.com/blog/how-to-test-infrastructure-as-code/>)

Author: Alex Leventer

Published: 2026-06-30T21:00:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Pulumi](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/pulumi.md>)

Topics: [Infrastructure as code](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/infrastructure-as-code.md>), [Testing](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/testing.md>), [Programming](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/programming.md>), [Security](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/security.md>)

Tags: [how-to](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/how-to.md>), [iac](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/iac.md>), [infrastructure-as-code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/infrastructure-as-code.md>), [pytest](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/pytest.md>), [security](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/security.md>), [testing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/testing.md>)

## AI overview

This guide explains how to test infrastructure as code using unit tests with mocked cloud providers, integration tests against real resources, and policy checks. It shows how these testing layers can catch misconfigurations, security issues, drift, and regressions before infrastructure changes reach production.

## Source excerpt

IaC testing means validating your infrastructure code the same way you test application software--unit tests with mocked cloud providers that run in milliseconds, integration tests that deploy and inspect real resources, and policy checks that enforce compliance rules on every preview and deploy. Together, these layers catch misconfigurations before they reach production. Untested infrastructure code is a liability. A missing tag in a security group rule, an S3 bucket with public read access, a misconfigured IAM policy--any of these can slip through code review and land in production. Infrastructure bugs are often harder to debug than application bugs, because the feedback loop is slow (deploy, observe, destroy) and the blast radius is large (an outage, a security incident, a surprise AWS bill). The good news: Pulumi is built on general-purpose programming languages, which means you can test infrastructure code with the exact same tools and frameworks you already use to test application code. No new language to learn. No separate toolchain. Just pytest, Mocha, or go test--pointing at your infrastructure program. This guide walks through all three testing layers with complete, runnable examples. Why should you test infrastructure as code? The case for testing application code is well-established. The case for testing IaC is just as strong--arguably stronger, because the consequences of an undetected bug are more severe. Catch misconfigurations before they deploy. A unit test that checks whether a security group allows SSH from 0.0.0.0/0 will catch that misconfiguration in milliseconds, before any cloud API call is made. The same test in CI catches it before the code is merged. Prevent drift and outages. Integration tests that deploy to a staging environment and validate runtime behavior--does the HTTP endpoint return 200? does the database accept connections?--give you confidence that an infrastructure change doesn't silently break a dependent service. Refactor safely. Wel