Interactive Component and Stack Selection for Terraform Commands

Terraform commands now feature interactive prompts for component and stack selection. Run atmos terraform plan without arguments and get an intuitive selector instead of an error message.

What Changed

All 22 terraform commands that require component and stack arguments now support interactive selection when these values are missing. This brings the interactive prompts feature to the most frequently used Atmos commands.

$ atmos terraform plan
? Choose a component
  > vpc
    eks-cluster
    rds-aurora
? Choose a stack
  > ue2-dev
    ue2-prod
    uw2-staging

Previously, running atmos terraform plan without arguments resulted in an unhelpful error message requiring you to already know your component and stack names.

Why This Matters

For Newcomers

When you join a new company or start working with an unfamiliar codebase, the hardest part is often discovering what's available. What components exist? What stacks are configured? Interactive prompts eliminate the need to dig through documentation or ask colleagues for component names.

# Day 1 at a new job? Just run the command
$ atmos terraform plan
# See all available components, pick one, then see matching stacks

For Experienced Users

Even for veterans, interactive selection reduces friction:

• No more typos - Select from a list instead of typing infrastructure/vpc from memory
• Context-aware filtering - After selecting a component, the stack list shows only stacks containing that component
• Terminal history visibility - Selections are displayed after choosing, so your shell history shows what you ran

For Onboarding

Interactive prompts serve as built-in documentation. New team members can explore what infrastructure exists without any prior knowledge. This significantly reduces onboarding time and the burden on senior engineers to answer "what components do we have?" questions.

How It Works

Interactive prompts appear when all conditions are met:

1. Missing component or stack - You didn't provide required arguments
2. Interactive terminal - Running in a TTY (not piped or in CI)
3. --interactive enabled - On by default, disable with --interactive=false

Smart Stack Filtering

When you select a component first, the stack selector automatically filters to show only stacks that contain that component:

$ atmos terraform plan
? Choose a component
  > vpc              # Select vpc
? Choose a stack     # Only shows stacks with vpc configured
  > ue2-dev
    ue2-prod

Selection Feedback

After making a selection, Atmos displays what you chose:

$ atmos terraform plan
? Choose a component
  > vpc
i Selected component `vpc`
? Choose a stack
  > ue2-dev
i Selected stack `ue2-dev`

# Terraform plan runs...

This ensures your terminal history captures exactly what was executed.

Cancel with ESC

Changed your mind? Press ESC or Ctrl+C to cancel at any point:

$ atmos terraform plan
? Choose a component
  > vpc
# Press ESC
! Selection cancelled

Supported Commands

All terraform commands that route through the standard execution path now support interactive prompts:

Command	Description
plan	Show execution plan
apply	Apply changes
deploy	Plan and apply
destroy	Destroy infrastructure
init	Initialize working directory
validate	Validate configuration
output	Show outputs
refresh	Update state
show	Inspect state
console	Interactive console
state	State management
import	Import resources
And 10 more...

Custom commands like shell, clean, and generate varfile/backend/planfile also support interactive prompts.

Disabling Interactive Prompts

For scripts and automation, disable prompts:

# Via flag
atmos terraform plan --interactive=false

# Via environment variable
export ATMOS_INTERACTIVE=false

# Via atmos.yaml
settings:
  interactive: false

Interactive prompts are automatically disabled in CI environments (detected via CI environment variable) and when output is piped.

Get Involved

• Share your feedback in the Atmos Community Slack
• Report issues on GitHub