Default Pipelines

Last updated on Jul 2, 2026

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IaCM Default Pipelines offer a streamlined approach to provisioning, destroying, and managing infrastructure workspaces by allowing you to run your pre-configured pipelines directly from any workspace. These pipelines can be easily created and set as defaults at the project level, providing quick and consistent access across all workspaces. This functionality ensures a seamless experience and maintains uniformity throughout your infrastructure management.

In addition, as some workspaces may require specialized pipelines, you can overwrite the defaults at the workspace level. This will not disrupt any other workspace using the project level defaults.

danger zone

A pipeline containing the destroy command will remove all saved infrastructure managed by your Harness workspace.

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Before you begin

• IaCM permissions: View and Create/Edit permissions for IaCM Pipelines, and Edit permissions for Project Settings to configure IaCM Defaults. Go to RBAC in Harness to configure roles.
• Existing pipelines: At least one pipeline created for each operation you want to set as a default (Plan, Provision, Detect Drift, Destroy). Go to Pipeline Operations to add operational features to your pipelines before assigning them as defaults.

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Configure and run default pipelines

Interactive Guide

Step-by-Step

Set your project-level default pipelines

1. In your IaCM module, select Project settings, then select IaCM Defaults.
2. Select the appropriate pipelines for your default categories and frameworks (OpenTofu / Terraform):
   • Plan: Pipeline for running the plan only.
   • Provision: Pipeline for initializing, planning, approving, and applying changes.
   • Detect Drift: Pipeline for detecting drift between your configuration and provider state.
   • Destroy: Pipeline for initializing, planning, approving, and destroying infrastructure.

Review your default pipelines in your workspace

3. Select Workspaces, then select one of your workspaces to run your default pipelines.
4. Select the Configuration tab and scroll down to Default pipelines to inspect or override your default pipelines at the selected workspace-level (this will not affect your project level settings).

Run your default pipelines in your workspace

5. While in your workspace, run your default pipelines against it with the Plan, Provision and Check for Drift buttons.

execute the destroy pipeline

To prevent accidental execution, the Destroy pipeline is in your workspace’s Configuration tab, under Danger Zone.

To run it, select Destroy workspace.

Review previously run pipelines by selecting your workspace and reviewing the Execution History tab.

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Next steps

You have configured default pipelines at the project level and can now run Plan, Provision, and Detect Drift operations directly from any workspace.

• Go to Pipeline Operations to add approval gates, drift detection, PR automation, and queue steps to your default pipelines.
• Go to Remove and import resources to safely remove infrastructure resources from state without destroying them.
• Go to Custom images to use your own Terraform or OpenTofu plugin images in your IaCM pipeline stages.