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Better Error Messages: Helpful Hints, Rich Context, and Enterprise Error Tracking

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

We've completely rebuilt Atmos error handling from the ground up to provide helpful hints, rich context, and enterprise-grade error tracking. When something goes wrong, you now get actionable guidance instead of cryptic messages, and enterprises can track and analyze errors across their entire infrastructure stack.

The Problem: Errors That Don't Help​

Traditional CLI error messages tell you what went wrong, but not how to fix it:

Error: invalid workflow manifest

What's invalid? What should it look like? Where do I find documentation? You're left to guess, search documentation, or dig through source code.

For platform teams managing hundreds of components across multiple environments, this friction adds up:

  • Time wasted debugging - Engineers spend hours tracking down configuration issues
  • Context switching - Jumping between error messages, documentation, and source code
  • Repeated mistakes - Without clear guidance, teams make the same errors repeatedly
  • No visibility - No way to track error patterns across teams or identify systemic issues

What We Built​

1. Helpful Hints That Guide You​

Errors now include actionable hints that tell you exactly how to fix the problem:

Before:

Error: Vendoring is not configured

After:

# Error

**Error:** Vendoring is not configured

## Hints

💡 Add a vendor section to your atmos.yaml configuration
💡 https://atmos.tools/vendor

Every error can include:

  • Step-by-step guidance - Exact commands or configuration changes needed
  • Documentation links - Direct links to relevant docs
  • Common solutions - Hints based on frequent causes

2. Rich Contextual Information​

Errors now include full context about what you were trying to do:

# Workflow Error

**Error:** invalid from-step flag

## Explanation

The --from-step flag was set to dne, but this step does not exist in workflow pass.

### Available steps:

• step1
• step2
• deploy-production

## Context

• Workflow: pass
• File: stacks/workflows/deploy.yaml
• Component: vpc
• Stack: prod-us-east-1

This context helps you understand:

  • What triggered the error - Component, stack, workflow
  • What was expected - Valid options and alternatives
  • Where to look - Exact file paths and line numbers
  • What's available - List of valid choices

3. Structured, Readable Format​

All errors use markdown formatting for better readability:

  • Headers organize information hierarchically
  • Bold text highlights key details
  • Lists make options scannable
  • Code blocks show exact syntax
  • Links connect to documentation

The formatting automatically adapts to your terminal:

  • Rich TTY - Full markdown rendering with colors and styles
  • Basic TTY - Plain text with minimal formatting
  • Piped output - Clean text for logs and processing

4. Enterprise Error Tracking with Sentry​

For organizations running Atmos at scale, we've integrated Sentry for centralized error tracking and analysis.

Configure once in atmos.yaml:

errors:
  sentry:
    enabled: true
    dsn: "https://your-sentry-dsn@sentry.io/project"
    environment: "production"

    # Custom tags for filtering and grouping
    tags:
      team: "platform"
      service: "atmos"

What you get:

  • Centralized error tracking - All Atmos failures in one place
  • Rich context - Component, stack, workflow, and exit codes automatically attached
  • Error aggregation - Group similar errors, track trends, identify patterns
  • Team visibility - See which components/stacks fail most often
  • Actionable alerts - Get notified when critical operations fail

Sentry captures command failures only—errors that cause Atmos to exit with a non-zero exit code. This includes configuration errors, missing components, validation failures, and workflow failures. Every error includes hints (as breadcrumbs), context tags, and full stack traces for debugging.

5. Developer-Friendly Error Building​

For Atmos contributors, creating helpful errors is now simple:

import errUtils "github.com/cloudposse/atmos/errors"

// Build rich errors with hints and context
err := errUtils.Build(errUtils.ErrInvalidWorkflow).
    WithHint("Add a vendor section to your atmos.yaml").
    WithHintf("See %s for examples", docsURL).
    WithContext("workflow", workflowName).
    WithContext("file", filepath).
    WithExitCode(1).
    Err()

Benefits:

  • Consistent format - All errors look and feel the same
  • Easy to enhance - Add hints and context without reformatting
  • Type-safe - Static error definitions prevent typos
  • Testable - Mock and verify error messages in tests

Configuration​

Basic Setup (Better Error Messages)​

Zero configuration required! Better error formatting works automatically.

Advanced Setup (Sentry Integration)​

Add to your atmos.yaml:

errors:
  # Control error display
  format:
    verbose: false  # Show full stack traces (default: false)

  # Sentry integration
  sentry:
    enabled: true
    dsn: !env ATMOS_SENTRY_DSN
    environment: !env ATMOS_ENV

    # Sample rate: 1.0 = 100%, 0.5 = 50% (default: 1.0)
    sample_rate: 1.0

    # Include code context in stack traces (default: true)
    capture_stack_context: true

    # Custom tags for filtering and grouping
    tags:
      team: "platform"
      region: "us-east-1"

Environment Variables​

# Override config file settings
export ATMOS_SENTRY_DSN="https://..."
export ATMOS_VERBOSE="true"

Migration Guide​

For Users​

No changes required! Your existing Atmos workflows continue to work. You'll automatically see:

  • Better formatted error messages
  • Helpful hints where applicable
  • Richer context in error output

For Atmos Contributors​

Update error handling to use the new builder pattern:

Before:

return fmt.Errorf("workflow %s not found", name)

After:

return errUtils.Build(errUtils.ErrWorkflowNotFound).
    WithContext("workflow", name).
    WithHintf("Available workflows: %s", strings.Join(available, ", ")).
    Err()

See docs/errors.md for the complete developer guide.

Get Involved​

We'd love your feedback:

  • Try it out - Upgrade to the latest Atmos and see the new errors
  • Add hints - Contribute helpful hints to errors you encounter
  • Share analytics - Tell us what error tracking insights are most valuable
  • Report issues - Let us know if any errors need better messages

See the Error Handling Documentation for complete details.

Want enterprise error tracking? Configure Sentry in your atmos.yaml today.

Have ideas for better error messages? Open an issue or PR - we'd love to hear from you!