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Full Template and YAML-Function Control for `atmos list`

· 3 min read
Andriy Knysh
Andriy Knysh
Principal Architect @ Cloud Posse

Every atmos list subcommand that processes stack manifests now accepts --process-templates and --process-functions (with matching ATMOS_PROCESS_TEMPLATES / ATMOS_PROCESS_FUNCTIONS env vars), matching the flag surface of atmos describe affected and atmos describe stacks. Defaults are true across the board.

What Changed​

Five commands gained the two flags:

  • atmos list instances
  • atmos list components
  • atmos list metadata
  • atmos list sources
  • atmos list stacks

atmos list affected, atmos list settings, and atmos list values (plus its list vars alias) already had them; the naming, defaults, and env-var bindings now line up with the rest of the list family and with describe affected / describe stacks / describe component.

Why This Matters​

The two flags control two different things, and the distinction finally matches what's actually happening:

  • --process-templates toggles Go template processing — including the atmos.Component(...) template function.
  • --process-functions toggles YAML functions — !terraform.state, !terraform.output, !store, !aws.*, and friends.

Before this release, the flag descriptions and docs conflated the two. If you wanted to run atmos list instances --upload in CI against a repo where component sections call atmos.Component(...) inside Go templates, you had no user-facing dial — the combination was pinned to processTemplates=true, processYamlFunctions=false, and the upload path would fail with No valid credential sources found when Terraform tried to read a remote backend.

Now you can mix and match:

# CI upload with full processing (default)
atmos list instances --upload

# Skip terraform-dependent functions in environments without `tofu`
atmos list instances --process-functions=false

# Tabular listing without template expansion (cheaper, no atmos.Component calls)
atmos list components --process-templates=false

Both flags accept true / false explicitly and can be set via ATMOS_PROCESS_TEMPLATES / ATMOS_PROCESS_FUNCTIONS in CI.

How to Use It​

Defaults (true) cover the common case — no flags needed for CI uploads:

atmos list instances --upload

Use the flags (or env vars) to opt out when you need to:

# Skip YAML functions — no `tofu` / `terraform` on $PATH locally
atmos list instances --process-functions=false

# Skip templates too, for the lightest stack pass
atmos list components --process-templates=false --process-functions=false

# Same knobs via env, handy in CI workflows
ATMOS_PROCESS_FUNCTIONS=false atmos list instances

If you're running locally without tofu / terraform on $PATH and hit errors from !terraform.state or !terraform.output, flip --process-functions=false — templates that don't touch terraform outputs still render correctly.

Docs for each command list the two flags in full: see atmos list instances, atmos list components, atmos list metadata, atmos list sources, and atmos list stacks.

Get Involved​

Found an issue or have a feature request? Open an issue on GitHub.