Systems for achieving and maintaining a specified state of a computing resource in a distributed computing environment. A method embodiment commences upon receiving one or more specification parameters that describe a desired target state associated with a particular computing resource and/or of a particular computing environment. The specification parameters that characterize the desired target state of a resource are recorded in a target state data structure. Periodically, an agent issues a state progression query to determine if the computing resource has reached its desired target state. The query is then processed by collecting state parameters that describe the then-current state of the computing resource or environment. The target state data structure is accessed to identify one or more state differences between the desired target state and the then-current state of the particular computing resource and/or its particular computing environment. Remediation operations based on the state differences are then carried out.