Golden paths are structured workflows and practices that help developers efficiently manage software development while adhering to organizational standards. These paths strike a balance between developers' desire for speed and feature release and DevOps teams' need for compliance with engineering standards. Golden paths reduce cognitive load by offering simplified, standardized automation for tasks like deploying Kubernetes or AWS RDS clusters, allowing developers to focus on their work without deep infrastructure knowledge. They increase velocity by enabling rapid self-service actions, such as provisioning resources through a portal, supported by platform engineers and DevOps teams. Internal developer portals are instrumental in implementing golden paths, featuring software catalogs, self-service actions, and scorecards that help maintain standards over time. Scorecards measure compliance with organizational standards, ensuring resources remain up-to-date and aligned with best practices. This approach fosters a positive relationship between developers and platform teams by embedding standards and processes, ultimately ensuring developers can follow and remain on the golden path effectively.