---
title: >
    The benefits of automation
pubDate: 2023-03-15
permalink: >-
    archive/2023/03/15/the-benefits-of-automation
tags:
    - automation
---

I've been working on a project with a client, using [Fractal](https://fractal.build) for our component library. I've been working on it locally but yesterday I needed to make it public for the client to review the work I've done.

I recently added `node` support to my [build configuration file generator](https://www.oliverdavies.uk/archive/2023/03/04/why-i-built-a-tool-to-generate-configuration-files) and used that to generate and use a consistent set of configuration files for a Fractal project.

I've used Terraform in [some codebases](https://github.com/opdavies/rebuilding-acquia) to create and configure AWS resources like S3 buckets and Cloudfront distributions, so I was able to use that to create what I needed as well as adding the DNS record for a new subdomain to access Cloudfront.

I use a `justfile` to automate tasks such as generating production assets from Fractal and uploading it to the S3 bucket, so I can do this in a single command instead of multiple and in a consistent and reproducible way.

I started with a standalone project on my laptop and finished with a consistent cloud-based environment for my client and their project to review their component library, and because of the automation that I've built and used, this only took a few minutes to do.