Initialize an Atmos project from a proven starting point
Initializing a project should establish a useful local starting point, not leave a developer with an empty directory and a list of conventions to reconstruct. Modern development platforms provide an initialization workflow: developers select a known-good example or template, create the project locally, and make the next action obvious. Atmos provides that workflow for infrastructure projects.
The atmos init command initializes an Atmos project from a template chosen for the job at hand:
a minimal cloud-agnostic project, an AWS application SDLC project, or a cloud landing zone. Each
template creates the configuration, structure, and operational path appropriate to that project
rather than asking every team to assemble it from scratch.
Initialize the Project You Need
The basic template gives a new project a small, cloud-agnostic foundation with a real greeting
Terraform component. It creates a local file, so a developer can validate and deploy the generated
project without a cloud account, credentials, or an emulator. The point is to prove that the
initialized project works before anyone starts extending it.
For teams beginning an application project, the aws/app catalog template establishes a complete
AWS application SDLC repository with dev, staging, and production stacks, native CI, and an
emulator-proven application component. For a platform foundation, aws/landing-zone initializes
dev, staging, and production environments with a conventional AWS baseline for audit, KMS, SSM,
monitoring, and IAM. The catalog also includes GCP and Azure landing-zone starting points.
A Consistent Initialization Contract
An interactive invocation lets a developer choose the project template and answer only the
questions that shape it. Required answers, patterns, option lists, and boolean values are enforced
consistently whether they come from prompts, defaults, persisted values, or --set. The same
initialization can therefore be repeated from automation without bypassing the template’s contract.
Built-in templates travel with the Atmos binary. Catalog templates resolve to the source associated with that build, so a team initializes from a known template version rather than an accidental snapshot of a repository.
Build Your Organization's Golden Paths
The init catalog distributes proven starting points with Atmos. For organization-owned golden
paths that your platform team distributes through a catalog or Git repository, see the scaffolds announcement.
See the Init Command Documentation for the full template list.
