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Restore Component Details in Bulk Terraform Plan Summaries

· 2 min read
Erik Osterman
Erik Osterman
Founder @ Cloud Posse

When a pull request plans changes across many components, you need to see what will change, which plans failed, and which components need no action. Opening a separate log for every component makes that review slow. Atmos puts the normal component summaries beneath the bulk-plan overview so you can review those results together in your CI summary or pull request comment.

The Problem​

Previously, Atmos showed a summary table for bulk plans. That overview was helpful for seeing which components changed, but it left out the normal per-component plan summaries, including "No Changes" results. To review each plan in detail, you had to open the individual component logs.

The Fix​

Bulk plans keep the aggregate overview and append the normal summary for each executed component, including no-change results. The summaries use the same CI templates and configured overrides as single-component plans, ordered by stack and component. Skipped components remain in the overview with their reason.

Durations are easier to read, using seconds, minutes, and hours.

If the summary cannot fit all component details, Atmos includes a warning with guidance for narrowing the plan's scope:

[!WARNING] Output exceeds the maximum summary size. Consider reducing scope using --tags or --labels.

You can inspect omitted details in component logs. For successful plans, you can also use saved plan artifacts when available; failed plans do not produce plan artifacts.

How to Use It​

Run a bulk plan in CI as usual; no new configuration is needed:

atmos terraform plan --all -s dev --ci --max-concurrency 4

The same summary behavior applies to bulk plans selected with --components, --query, or --affected.

For a report that exceeds the size budget, narrow the selected components using tags or labels:

atmos terraform plan --all -s dev --ci --tags production
atmos terraform plan --all -s dev --ci --labels cost-center=platform

Replace these selectors with tags or labels defined on your components.

Get Involved​

See PR #3580 for the change, or open an issue if a bulk-plan summary is missing information you need to review your infrastructure changes.