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Toggle CI PR Comments with an Environment Variable

· 2 min read
Atmos Team
Atmos Team
Atmos Team

You can now enable or disable CI PR comments per-pipeline using the ATMOS_CI_COMMENTS_ENABLED environment variable — no config file changes needed.

What Changed​

A new ATMOS_CI_COMMENTS_ENABLED environment variable overrides the ci.comments.enabled setting in atmos.yaml. When set, it takes precedence over the YAML configuration.

ATMOS_CI_COMMENTS_ENABLED=true   # enable PR comments
ATMOS_CI_COMMENTS_ENABLED=false  # disable PR comments

The variable accepts any standard boolean value (true, false, 1, 0). Invalid values log a warning and leave the YAML setting unchanged.

Why This Matters​

Some CI workflows need different PR comment behavior depending on the context. For example:

  • Scheduled drift-detection runs should suppress PR comments (there's no PR to comment on)
  • PR preview pipelines should post plan summaries as PR comments
  • Staging deploys triggered by merge should skip comments

Previously, you had to maintain separate atmos.yaml files or use conditional YAML templating to toggle comments. Now it's a single environment variable.

How to Use It​

Set the variable in your CI workflow:

# Post plan summaries as PR comments
- name: atmos terraform plan
  env:
    ATMOS_CI_COMMENTS_ENABLED: "true"
  run: |
    atmos terraform plan "$COMPONENT" --stack "$STACK"

# Suppress comments for scheduled runs
- name: atmos terraform plan (drift detection)
  env:
    ATMOS_CI_COMMENTS_ENABLED: "false"
  run: |
    atmos terraform plan "$COMPONENT" --stack "$STACK"

The environment variable follows the same precedence as other ATMOS_* variables: CLI flags > environment variables > config files > defaults.

Get Involved​

Found an issue or have a feature request? Open an issue on GitHub.