Policy-as-Code in Vim: Fast, Lightweight, and Drift-Free

Policy-as-Code in Vim is faster than any GUI, lighter than any IDE, and ruthless against drift. You define compliance, security, and operational rules in a plain text file. You commit them. The system enforces them every time. No click fatigue. No waiting for CI to catch up. Everything happens as you type.

Vim’s modal editing suits Policy-as-Code work. Normal mode for navigation. Insert mode for fast edits. Command mode for refactoring entire policy blocks. With macros, you apply patterns across dozens of Kubernetes manifests, Terraform modules, or OPA rules without breaking flow. Search commands and visual selections make multi-file changes exact and repeatable.

Policy-as-Code in Vim keeps policies in source control, right next to the services they govern. Version history tells you who changed what and why. Git hooks can run validation before the change even leaves your machine. Plugins like ALE or coc.nvim can lint Rego, YAML, or HCL on save. You see violations instantly, not after deployment.

Integrating Vim with tools like Open Policy Agent, Conftest, or Checkov makes the workflow complete. You edit a policy, save the file, run checks in a split terminal, and apply fixes without leaving the editor. No context switches. No wasted motion. The policies are just code, and Vim handles code better than anything else.

When Policy-as-Code is part of your editor muscle memory, compliance is no longer an extra step—it’s built into the act of writing infrastructure.

See Policy-as-Code run live, enforced in minutes with hoop.dev.