Power Platform Developer ALM Lab

Power Platform with source-first ALM: a monorepo, ephemeral Dev/Test environments, trunk-based development, PR quality gates and GitHub Actions deployments.

Start here

1. Fork this repo to your personal GitHub account (top-right Fork button).

2. On your fork (https://github.com/<you>/alm-lab), click Code → Codespaces → Create codespace on main. All tools are preinstalled. The Codespace and free GitHub Actions minutes run on your account.

   ⚠️ Don't use a "one-click" badge that points at TALXIS/alm-lab — that starts the Codespace on the parent repo, where you can't push and your free minutes won't apply. Always launch from your own fork.

3. Wait for VS Code to load in the browser. Open a terminal (`Ctrl+``) — you're in PowerShell.

4. Work through the Checkpoints below in order, starting with CP01.

💡 Each checkpoint script is fully commented — open it, read what it does, then run it. You can run them step-by-step (F8 on selected lines) or all at once.

Signing in (CP01)

CP01 signs you in to everything up front: GitHub (gh), Power Platform (txc) and Azure (az). Two of these use a device code — the terminal prints a code and a URL; open it, paste the code, and approve. When prompted, allow the workflow scope for gh so later checkpoints can install GitHub Actions on your fork.

How each checkpoint works (PR flow)

Checkpoints don't push straight to main — they teach the real ALM loop. Each one:

1. Creates a branch and commits its changes.
2. Opens a Pull Request and prints the link.
3. Pauses — open the PR in your browser, review the diff and the running build check.
4. Press Enter to continue: it waits for the build check, squash-merges, and tags for rollback.

This is the slow, deliberate part — read the PR, watch the build go green, then merge. The first time a checkpoint enables GitHub Actions you may be asked to approve workflows on your fork — say yes.

Checkpoints

#	Script	Goal
01	CP01-check-machine-setup.ps1	Verify all tools are installed
02	CP02-create-repository-layout.ps1	Monorepo layout (solution, src, NuGet)
03	CP03-setup-continuous-integration.ps1	Branch protection — gated PRs into main
04	CP04-setup-runtime.ps1	Create Dev + Test Dataverse environments
05	CP05-setup-continuous-deployment.ps1	OIDC service principal + deploy workflow
06	CP06-implement-data-model.ps1	Warehouse tables and columns
07	CP07-implement-backend.ps1	Plugins + logic solution
08	CP08-implement-security.ps1	Security roles
09	CP09-implement-ui.ps1	Model-driven app, sitemap, forms, views
10	CP10-deploy-and-sync.ps1	Deploy to Dev & pull changes back
11	CP11-move-configuration.ps1	Configuration data migration (CMT)
12	CP12-extend-branch-policies-build-checks.ps1	Require build check on PRs
13	CP13-automate-testing.ps1	BDD UI test project + (manual) test workflow

Run a checkpoint:

.lab-scripts/CP01-check-machine-setup.ps1

Rollback

Every checkpoint commits, pushes, and tags its result. To roll back to an earlier checkpoint:

git reset --hard cp05
git push --force

Your variables persist in .lab-state.json (committed), so you can resume on a fresh Codespace even if your terminal crashes.