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Disable Identity Authentication with --identity=false

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

You can now disable Atmos identity authentication by setting --identity=false, allowing you to use cloud provider SDK credential resolution instead.

What Changed​

The --identity flag now accepts false as a value to skip Atmos authentication entirely. When disabled, Atmos falls back to standard cloud provider SDK credential resolution.

Why This Matters​

CI/CD environments often use their own authentication mechanisms (like GitHub Actions OIDC). Previously, you had to use workarounds like yq commands to remove auth configuration or maintain separate config files. Now you can simply disable Atmos authentication when needed.

How to Use It​

# Via CLI flag
atmos terraform plan mycomponent --stack=dev --identity=false

# Via environment variable
export ATMOS_IDENTITY=false
atmos terraform plan mycomponent --stack=dev

Example: GitHub Actions​

- name: Configure AWS credentials via OIDC
  uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
  with:
    role-to-assume: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/GitHubActionsRole
    aws-region: us-east-1

- name: Deploy with Atmos
  env:
    ATMOS_IDENTITY: false
  run: atmos terraform apply mycomponent --stack=prod

Accepted Values​

All of these disable authentication: false, 0, no, off (case-insensitive)

Get Involved​