Remote Stack Imports

Atmos now supports importing stack configurations from remote URLs. Reference shared configurations from GitHub, S3, GCS, or any HTTP endpoint directly in your stack files.

What Changed

Stack imports now support remote URLs alongside local file paths. The import syntax remains the same, but Atmos detects remote URLs and downloads them automatically using go-getter:

import:
  # Local import - works as before
  - catalog/base

  # Remote imports - NEW
  - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cloudposse/atmos/main/stacks/catalog/shared.yaml
  - github.com/myorg/shared-config//stacks/defaults.yaml?ref=v1.0.0
  - s3::https://s3.amazonaws.com/my-bucket/configs/base.yaml

Why This Matters

Teams often need to share stack configurations across multiple repositories or organizations. Previously, this required vendoring shared configs or maintaining copies in each repository. Now you can reference shared configurations directly from their source:

• Central catalogs: Maintain organization-wide defaults in a single repository
• Version pinning: Reference specific versions with Git refs (?ref=v1.0.0)
• Cross-team sharing: Import configurations from other teams without duplication
• External standards: Pull in compliance or security baselines from external sources

Supported URL Formats

Remote imports leverage go-getter for downloading. Here are some common formats:

Format	Example
HTTP	http://example.com/config.yaml
HTTPS	https://example.com/config.yaml
GitHub	github.com/org/repo//path/to/file.yaml
Git with ref	github.com/org/repo//path?ref=v1.0.0
S3	s3::https://s3.amazonaws.com/bucket/key.yaml
GCS	gcs::gs://bucket/path/config.yaml
Git SSH	git@github.com:org/repo.git//path/to/file.yaml

See the go-getter documentation for additional supported formats.

How to Use It

Basic Remote Import

Reference a remote configuration directly:

# stacks/deploy/production.yaml
import:
  - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/myorg/shared-configs/main/base.yaml

vars:
  environment: production

components:
  terraform:
    vpc:
      vars:
        cidr_block: "10.0.0.0/16"

Version-Pinned Imports

Pin imports to specific Git refs for reproducibility:

import:
  # Pin to a specific tag
  - github.com/myorg/shared-configs//catalog/defaults.yaml?ref=v2.1.0

  # Pin to a specific commit
  - github.com/myorg/shared-configs//catalog/security.yaml?ref=abc123

Skip Missing Remote Imports

Use skip_if_missing for optional remote configurations:

import:
  - path: "https://internal.example.com/optional-overrides.yaml"
    skip_if_missing: true

Example

We've added a complete example demonstrating remote stack imports:

cd examples/remote-stack-imports
atmos describe stacks

The example shows both local and remote imports working together, with proper configuration merging and inheritance.

note

This feature was previously documented but not yet implemented. We apologize for this oversight. Remote stack imports now work as documented, exactly like remote imports for atmos.yaml.

Get Involved

We'd love to hear how you're using remote stack imports. Please open an issue if you have questions or encounter edge cases.

For more details, see the Stack Imports documentation.