atmos describe stacks

Use this command to show the fully deep-merged configuration for all stacks and the components in the stacks.

atmos describe stacks --help

Usage

Execute the describe stacks command like this:

atmos describe stacks [options]

This command shows configuration for stacks and components in the stacks.

YAML Functions and Authentication

By default, atmos describe stacks executes YAML template functions (e.g., !terraform.state, !terraform.output) and Go templates during stack processing. When these functions access remote resources requiring authentication, use the --identity flag to authenticate before execution. You can disable function/template processing with --process-functions=false or --process-templates=false flags.

tip

Run atmos describe stacks --help to see all the available options

Examples

atmos describe stacks
atmos describe stacks -s tenant1-ue2-dev
atmos describe stacks --file=stacks.yaml
atmos describe stacks --file=stacks.json --format=json
atmos describe stacks --components=infra/vpc
atmos describe stacks --components=echo-server,infra/vpc
atmos describe stacks --components=echo-server,infra/vpc --sections=none
atmos describe stacks --components=echo-server,infra/vpc --sections=none
atmos describe stacks --components=none --sections=metadata
atmos describe stacks --components=echo-server,infra/vpc --sections=vars,settings,metadata
atmos describe stacks --components=test/test-component-override-3 --sections=vars,settings,component,deps,inheritance --file=stacks.yaml
atmos describe stacks --components=test/test-component-override-3 --sections=vars,settings --format=json --file=stacks.json
atmos describe stacks --components=test/test-component-override-3 --sections=deps,vars -s=tenant2-ue2-staging
atmos describe stacks --process-templates=false
atmos describe stacks --process-functions=false
atmos describe stacks --skip=terraform.output
atmos describe stacks --skip=terraform.output --skip=include
atmos describe stacks --skip=include,eval
atmos describe stacks --query <yq-expression>
# Authenticate before describing (when YAML functions require credentials)
atmos describe stacks --identity my-aws-identity
atmos describe stacks --identity # Interactive selection
# Disable authentication (use AWS SDK defaults)
atmos describe stacks --identity=false
atmos describe stacks -i my-aws-identity -s tenant1-ue2-dev

tip

Use the --query flag (shorthand -q) to filter the output.

Flags

--stack / -s (optional)

Filter by a specific stack.
Supports names of the top-level stack manifests
(including subfolder paths),
and Atmos stack names (derived from the context vars).

--file (optional)

If specified, write the result to the file.

--format (optional)

Specify the output format: yaml or json (yaml is default).

--components (optional)

Filter by specific Atmos components
(comma-separated string of component names).

--component-types (optional)

Filter by specific component types: terraform or helmfile.

--sections (optional)

Output only the specified component sections.
Available component sections: backend, backend_type, component, deps,
env, inheritance, metadata, remote_state_backend,
remote_state_backend_type, settings, vars.

--process-templates (optional)

Enable/disable processing of all Go templates
in Atmos stacks manifests when executing the command.
Use the flag to see the stack configurations
before and after the templates are processed.
If the flag is not provided, it's set to true by default.
atmos describe stacks --process-templates=false.

--process-functions (optional)

Enable/disable processing of all Atmos YAML functions
in Atmos stacks manifests when executing the command.
Use the flag to see the stack configurations
before and after the functions are processed.
If the flag is not provided, it's set to true by default.
atmos describe stacks --process-functions=false.

--skip (optional)

Skip processing a specific Atmos YAML function
in Atmos stacks manifests when executing the command.
To specify more than one function,
use multiple --skip flags, or separate the functions with a comma:
atmos describe stacks --skip=terraform.output --skip=include
atmos describe stacks --skip=terraform.output,include.

--query / -q (optional)

Query the results of the command using yq expressions.

atmos describe stacks --query <yq-expression>.

For more details, refer to https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq.

--identity / -i (optional)

Authenticate with a specific identity before describing stacks.
This is required when YAML template functions (e.g., !terraform.state, !terraform.output)
need to access remote resources requiring authentication.
Use without a value for interactive identity selection:
atmos describe stacks --identity (interactive)
atmos describe stacks --identity my-aws-identity (specific identity)

For more details, refer to Authentication.

Provenance Tracking

To see provenance information (where configuration values originated with file:line:column details), use atmos describe component <component> -s <stack> --provenance for individual components. The describe stacks command does not currently support provenance display.