Skip to main content

Interactive Prompts for Missing Required Flags

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

Atmos now includes interactive prompts for missing required flags and positional arguments, making commands more discoverable and user-friendly. This feature is being gradually rolled out across commands.

What Changed​

Commands with required flags or positional arguments now automatically prompt you to select from available options when values are missing. This works just like shell autocomplete, helping you discover available options without memorizing values or checking documentation.

For example, running atmos theme show without arguments now displays an interactive menu:

atmos theme show
# ↓ Shows interactive selector with available themes

Previously, you'd see an error message requiring you to check the docs for valid values.

Why This Matters​

Interactive prompts significantly improve the developer experience by:

  1. Reducing cognitive load - No need to remember all valid values for flags
  2. Faster workflow - Select from a menu instead of typing and potentially mistyping
  3. Better discoverability - See what options are available without leaving the terminal
  4. CI-friendly - Automatically disabled in non-interactive environments (CI/CD, piped output)

How It Works​

Interactive prompts appear when all these conditions are met:

  1. TTY detected - You're running in an interactive terminal
  2. Required flag missing - The command has a required flag without a value
  3. --interactive flag is true - Enabled by default, disable with --interactive=false

Flag Patterns​

Interactive selector with empty value:

# Prompts for identity selection
atmos auth whoami --identity

# Prompts for theme selection
atmos theme show --theme

Interactive selector when flag omitted:

# Prompts if stack completion is available
atmos terraform plan mycomponent

Skip prompt with explicit value:

# No prompt - uses provided value
atmos theme show --theme default
atmos auth whoami --identity production

Disabling Interactive Prompts​

For scripting or CI/CD environments, disable prompts using:

Via flag:

atmos theme show --interactive=false

Via environment variable:

export ATMOS_INTERACTIVE=false
atmos theme show

Via configuration:

# atmos.yaml
settings:
  interactive: false

Interactive prompts are automatically disabled when:

  • Running in CI (detected via CI environment variable)
  • Output is piped or redirected
  • Not running in a TTY

Examples in Action​

Theme Selection​

$ atmos theme show
? Select a theme:
  > default
    github-dark
    dracula
    monokai

Identity Selection​

$ atmos auth whoami --identity
? Select an identity:
  > production
    staging
    development

Positional Arguments​

$ atmos describe component
? Select a component:
  > vpc
    eks-cluster
    rds-aurora
Filtering Options

When a selector has many options, you can filter by typing / followed by your search text. Note that filtering is case-sensitive.

Rollout Status​

This feature is currently being rolled out across Atmos commands. Initial support is available for:

  • atmos theme show - Theme selection.
  • atmos auth commands - Identity selection.

Coming soon: We're actively working to add interactive prompts to core functionality including atmos terraform, atmos helmfile, and atmos packer. These commands will prompt for component and stack selection when values are missing, making it even easier to work with infrastructure components.

Get Involved​