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Pick configuration profiles interactively with a bare --profile

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

Naming things from memory is one of the more tedious parts of a CLI workflow. You know you want to switch configuration contexts before running a command, but you don't always remember every profile name your team has defined, especially on a project you don't touch daily. Until now, --profile required you to type that name exactly, or go check atmos profile list first and copy it over.

The Problem​

--profile activates one or more named configuration overlays — dev settings, CI settings, security overrides, whatever a project defines. But the flag always required an explicit value. Typing --profile alone, expecting the CLI to prompt you the way -i/--identity already does when used bare, instead produced a raw usage error:

$ atmos auth login -i core-auto/terraform --profile
Incorrect Usage
Error: --profile flag needs an argument for command atmos auth login

The Fix​

--profile with no value now opens an interactive multi-select listing every profile Atmos discovers across your configured profile locations. Nothing is checked by default — toggle the ones you want with space, confirm, and they activate left-to-right in the order shown, exactly as if you'd typed them explicitly.

Any profile name you already typed alongside the bare flag starts pre-checked, so --profile ci --profile opens with ci already selected, ready to confirm or adjust. In a non-interactive context — CI, scripts, no TTY — bare --profile returns a clear error instead of hanging or guessing, so automation fails fast rather than silently.

How to Use It​

# Interactively choose which profiles to activate
atmos auth login -i core-auto/terraform --profile

# Explicit values still work exactly as before
atmos --profile developer terraform plan vpc -s prod
atmos --profile ci,security terraform plan vpc -s prod

Get Involved​

See the Profiles docs for the full behavior, including profile discovery order and merge precedence. Have feedback on this feature? Open an issue or join the conversation in the Cloud Posse community Slack.