A golden path is an offer, not a mandate: follow the path and get CI/CD, logging, alerting and deploys for free — step off it and you get the freedom, plus the full operational responsibility that comes with it. The principle: the right way should also be the easiest way. The term was popularised by Spotify.
We've written a practical guide (in Swedish): Sluta skriva wiki-sidor, börja bygga golden paths.