Training course · Windsurf · DevOps & Cloud

Windsurf for DevOps and Cloud Teams

Develop with the Windsurf AI IDE and its Cascade agent: flows, memories, rules, workflows and safe use across the team.

Duration
2 days (14 hrs)
Format
Online or on-site
Language
German or English
Participants
open dates or exclusive for your team
Certificate
Certificate of attendance

Overview

“Windsurf for DevOps and Cloud Teams” is designed for roles such as DevOps engineers and platform teams, Cloud architects working with AWS, Azure or Google Cloud and Site reliability engineers responsible for operations and incidents and shows step by step how to use Windsurf productively, safely and transparently in DevOps & Cloud – from the fundamentals to advanced workflows.

Windsurf is an AI-powered development environment built around its agent, Cascade. Cascade understands the structure of your project, follows your actions in the editor and terminal, and works with you according to the flow principle: you and the agent take turns on the same task without having to re-explain context over and over. In this two-day course you will learn how to use Cascade effectively for features, debugging and refactoring, and how to make the most of intelligent completion in your daily development work.

To keep results consistent across a team, you steer Cascade with global and workspace rules, rely on memories for lasting project knowledge and automate recurring procedures with workflows that run from a slash command. You will connect external tools through MCP, control how terminal commands are executed and decide which data Cascade is allowed to see. Finally, you will define rules for code review, security and data protection so that Windsurf can be used responsibly within your organisation and its existing processes.

DevOps and cloud teams own infrastructure as code, CI/CD pipelines, monitoring, cost control and security – often across several cloud providers and on-premises environments. Much of the work is configuration in HCL, YAML and shell, troubleshooting through logs and cross-checking documentation. AI coding assistants and agents speed up exactly that: they write reusable Terraform modules, fix failing pipelines, create Ansible roles, analyse incident logs and propose cost optimisations. At the same time the stakes are high, because a single wrong command can hit production. This course teaches you to use agents productively with clear permission boundaries, plan-and-review workflows and safeguarded environments.

The course is delivered live – either online in a virtual classroom or on-site in our training rooms in Munich, Salzburg, Berlin, Augsburg, Hanover, Bremen, Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern. We can also run it exclusively for your team.

Who is this course for?

  • DevOps engineers and platform teams
  • Cloud architects working with AWS, Azure or Google Cloud
  • Site reliability engineers responsible for operations and incidents
  • System administrators moving towards infrastructure as code
  • Developers who maintain their own CI/CD pipelines

Typical challenges we address

  • Growing volumes of Terraform, YAML and pipeline configuration with drift and duplication
  • Time-consuming troubleshooting of failing pipelines and distributed logs
  • Rising cloud costs without clear visibility
  • High demands on security, compliance and traceability of changes

What you will be able to do

  • You use Cascade productively in flow for features, debugging and refactoring.
  • You steer Windsurf’s context precisely and keep sensitive content protected.
  • You maintain memories and rules that reliably enforce your project conventions.
  • You automate recurring procedures with workflows and connect external tools via MCP.
  • Use AI agents safely for infrastructure as code, pipelines and configuration management.
  • Analyse incidents, pipeline failures and cloud costs faster with AI support.
  • Define permission boundaries and approval processes so agents cannot make uncontrolled changes to production.

Course outline

Day 1

Module 1 Getting to know Windsurf and Cascade
  • Installation, importing existing editor settings and basic configuration
  • Cascade in code and chat mode: when the agent edits and when it only advises
  • The flow principle: how Cascade takes your editor and terminal actions into account
  • Intelligent completion and inline commands in everyday development
Module 2 Steering context
  • Understanding codebase indexing and referencing relevant files or directories
  • Bringing documentation, web sources and terminal output into context
  • Excluding sensitive content from context with ignore files
  • Structuring sessions and starting afresh when the topic changes
Module 3 Memories and rules for consistent results
  • Reviewing and maintaining auto-generated and manually created memories
  • Creating and versioning global and workspace rules
  • Expressing architecture, style and testing guidelines as effective rules
  • Activating rules selectively by file pattern or occasion
Module 4 Workflows and automation
  • Defining recurring procedures as workflows and launching them via slash command
  • Building workflows for release preparation, testing or code maintenance
  • Connecting MCP servers for issue trackers, databases or internal services
  • Controlling terminal command execution with allow and deny lists

Day 2

Module 5 Quality, review and governance
  • Tracing Cascade’s changes, accepting them partially or reverting them
  • Using a test-driven approach and preview features for verification
  • Team settings, data protection options and handling of secrets
  • Defining review processes and accountability for AI-generated code
Module 6 Practice lab: DevOps & Cloud
  • Developing Terraform modules
  • Fixing CI/CD pipelines
  • Ansible and configuration management
  • Incident analysis
  • Optimising cloud costs
  • Policy as code and hardening
Module 7 Data protection, quality & transfer to daily work
  • Agents with access to cloud accounts and pipelines are a security matter: work with least privilege, separate environments and human approval, and keep cloud credentials, state files and secrets out of prompts. Operators of essential and important services must also meet NIS2 requirements on risk management, supply-chain security and traceability of changes.
  • Ground rules for safe AI use in your team
  • Checking results: facts, sources, tests and the four-eyes principle
  • Personal action plan for the next 30 days
  • Open questions, outlook and resources for further learning

Practical scenarios from your field

Developing Terraform modules

The agent creates reusable Terraform or OpenTofu modules with variables, validations and outputs, runs fmt, validate and plan, and explains every planned change before a human approves the apply.

Fixing CI/CD pipelines

Failed GitHub Actions, GitLab CI or Azure DevOps runs are analysed from their logs, root causes such as caching issues or missing permissions identified and corrected pipeline definitions proposed.

Ansible and configuration management

The AI writes idempotent Ansible roles, templates and inventories, replaces fragile shell scripts and adds Molecule tests so configuration stays reproducible. Existing roles are gradually standardised along the way.

Incident analysis

Logs, metrics and alerts from monitoring are brought together, a timeline reconstructed, likely causes narrowed down and a draft postmortem with actions produced. The team keeps the final judgement.

Optimising cloud costs

The assistant reviews cost reports and resource definitions, finds oversized instances, orphaned volumes or missing lifecycle rules and drafts the matching IaC changes. Each recommendation includes estimated savings.

Policy as code and hardening

IaC code is scanned with tools such as Checkov or tfsec, findings are fixed and rules for encryption, tagging or network access are expressed as policy as code.

Possible hands-on projects

Drift detector

A script that regularly runs terraform plan across several environments, detects drift and posts a summary to a chat channel.

Pipeline template library

Reusable CI/CD templates for build, test, security scanning and deployment, documented and accompanied by sample projects. Teams adopt them with just a few lines of configuration.

Cost report tool

A CLI that pulls cost data from a cloud account, breaks it down by tags and teams and clearly highlights optimisation candidates.

Prerequisites

You program regularly in at least one language and are familiar with Git and a modern IDE. Practical experience with Linux, Git and at least one cloud platform, plus a working knowledge of Terraform, containers and CI/CD.

Technical requirements

Your own laptop with the Windsurf editor, Git and your usual toolchain installed; a Windsurf account with access to Cascade is required.

Data protection & compliance

Agents with access to cloud accounts and pipelines are a security matter: work with least privilege, separate environments and human approval, and keep cloud credentials, state files and secrets out of prompts. Operators of essential and important services must also meet NIS2 requirements on risk management, supply-chain security and traceability of changes.

Suggested dates

All dates are suggestions – your preferred date is always possible.

  • Tue, 24 November 2026 – Wed, 25 November 2026 Online Request
  • Wed, 2 December 2026 – Thu, 3 December 2026 Munich Request
  • Wed, 9 December 2026 – Thu, 10 December 2026 Online Request
  • Mon, 11 January 2027 – Tue, 12 January 2027 Hanover Request
  • Tue, 19 January 2027 – Wed, 20 January 2027 Online Request
  • Wed, 27 January 2027 – Thu, 28 January 2027 Berlin Request

Frequently asked questions

What does Windsurf mean by flows?

Flows describe the close collaboration between you and Cascade. The agent observes what you do in the editor and terminal and takes those actions into account in its next steps. As a result you do not have to keep explaining where you are, and you can move smoothly between doing the work yourself and delegating it to the agent.

How do memories, rules and workflows differ?

Memories store knowledge that Cascade has gathered while working or that you have explicitly recorded. Rules are guidelines you write that shape the agent’s behaviour permanently. Workflows are reusable sequences of steps for recurring tasks, launched with a slash command. Together they keep results consistent across the whole team.

Can I use Windsurf with my existing projects and languages?

Yes. Windsurf is language-agnostic and works with your existing toolchain, including build tools, package managers and test frameworks. Whether you work on back end, front end, data processing or infrastructure code, what matters is giving Cascade good rules and clear context. Each course variant adds the specific focus for your field.

Should an AI agent be allowed to apply infrastructure changes itself?

That is something to limit deliberately. A proven workflow has the agent write code and run plan, a human review the result and the apply run through the regular pipeline. On the course you learn to design permissions, sandbox environments and approvals so that production systems stay protected.

Which cloud platform does the course use?

The methods are vendor-neutral and transfer to AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Exercises use examples you can reproduce with local tooling or test accounts. You are welcome to bring scenarios from your own platform, provided no production credentials are used.

How much does “Windsurf for DevOps and Cloud Teams” cost?

The course costs a flat €949 plus VAT per participant – whether online or on-site. This includes 2 training day(s) with a live trainer, course materials, a lab environment and a certificate of attendance.

Can I suggest my own date?

Yes. Our suggested dates are just a guide. In the request form you can always describe your preferred date or period in free text – we check availability and confirm within one working day.

Is the course online or on-site?

Both are possible: live online in a virtual classroom or on-site in Munich, Salzburg, Berlin, Augsburg, Hanover, Bremen, Stuttgart or Kaiserslautern. We can also run the course exclusively for your team.

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