In Platform Engineering, our mission is clear:
Build tools that help developers move fast and independently - without waiting for DevOps or becoming a bottleneck.

At Melio, a team of just 5 DevOps supports over 200 developers. That scale leaves no room for manual work. Self-service isn’t a nice-to-have - it’s survival.

Usually, building self-service starts by identifying repetitive requests and automating them. But what if we could take it one step further?

What if we could automate the automation itself?

One of the most common needs at Melio is creatingSelf-Service Runners - little automations developers can trigger on demand.

Each runner used to require a bunch of steps:

• Cloning a GitHub template
• Customizing SAM template
• Updating Lambda code to handle parameters and logic
• Creating a Slack modal for input
• Hooking it all into CircleCI and deploying

That’s a lot. Too much.
So… we built a runner that builds runners.

With just a few inputs - runner name, a JSON schema for inputs, and optional Terraform config - this tool does it all:

• Spins up a GitHub repo from a template
• Opens a PR with all code changes
• Builds the Slack Modal automatically
• Wires it all to CI/CD and deploys

Think of it like a buffet for infrastructure.
Developers choose what they need, and automation serves it up instantly.

And the best part?
We useBedrock to inject parameters dynamically into Terraform files - no more writing custom logic for every use case.

We’re not just building tools.
We’re building tools that build tools.
That’s what Platform Engineering looks like when AI becomes part of the stack.

We didn’t reinvent the wheel. No complex systems, no massive overhead. Just practical automation that scales - fast.

The Buffet: Behind the Scenes
We call our self-service portal The Buffet because it empowers developers to “serve themselves” — instantly and independently. Whether it’s provisioning AWS resources, spinning up a database, or managing secrets, developers just make a request and automation takes care of the rest.

It's built around a simple but powerful backbone:Lambda, SNS, SQS, GitHub PRs, and Terraform via Env0.
It’s not flashy — but it works incredibly well.

Since introducing The Buffet, we’ve offloaded hundreds of support tickets.
DevOps interruptions are down, and developer autonomy is way up.

Final Thoughts
The result?
With just a few clicks, we can spin up a fully functional self-service runner — production-ready and developer-friendly.

It’s not just faster.
It’s a complete shift in how we support scale.
And it’s already boosting productivity across the board.

Would love to hear how others are approaching self-service at scale. Feel free to comment or connect 🙌

Orel Bello
DevOps Platform Engineer @ Melio | AWS Community Builder
Passionate about scaling DevOps with simplicity and impact.