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Configure OpenTofu

Atmos natively supports OpenTofu, similar to the way it supports Terraform. It's compatible with every version of opentofu and designed to work with multiple different versions of it concurrently, and can even work alongside with HashiCorp Terraform.

OpenTofu

You will learn

  • How to configure Atmos to use OpenTofu for Terraform components
  • How to alias terraform to tofu in Atmos
  • How to configure OpenTofu for only specific components

Please see the complete configuration options for Terraform, as they are the same for OpenTofu. We'll focus only on what's different in this document, in order to utilize OpenTofu. Keep in mind that Atmos does not handle the downloading or installation of OpenTofu; it assumes that any required binaries for the commands are already installed on your system.

Additionally, if using Spacelift together with Atmos, make sure you review the Spacelift Integration to make any necessary changes.

CLI Configuration​

All the default configuration settings to support OpenTofu are defined in the Atmos CLI Configuration, but can also be overridden at any level of the Stack configuration.

To make OpenTofu the default command when running "terraform", modify atmos.yaml to configure the following global settings:

components:
  terraform:
    # Use the `tofu` command when calling "terraform" in Atmos.
    command: "/usr/bin/tofu"  # or just `tofu`

    # Optionally, specify a different path for OpenTofu components
    base_path: "components/tofu"
Disambiguation

Atmos consistently utilizes the terraform keyword across all configurations, rather than tofu or opentofu. The term “Terraform” is used in this documentation to refer to generic concepts such as providers, modules, stacks, the HCL-based domain-specific language and its interpreter.

Additionally, if you prefer to run atmos tofu instead of atmos terraform, you can configure an alias. Just add the following configuration somewhere in the atmos.yaml CLI config file:

aliases:
  tofu: terraform
important

Creating aliases for tofu only changes the CLI invocation of atmos terraform and does not directly influence the actual command that atmos executes when running Terraform. Atmos strictly adheres to the specific command set in the Stack configurations.

Stack Configuration for Components​

Settings for Terraform or OpenTofu can also be specified in stack configurations, where they are compatible with inheritance. This feature allows projects to tailor behavior according to individual component needs.

While defaults for everything are defined in the atmos.yaml, the same settings, can be overridden by Stack configurations at any level:

  • terraform
  • components.terraform
  • components.terraform._component_

For instance, you can modify the command executed for a specific component by overriding the command parameter. This flexibility is particularly valuable for gradually transitioning to OpenTofu or managing components that are compatible only with HashiCorp Terraform.

components:
  terraform:
    vpc:
      command: "/usr/local/bin/tofu-1.7"

Example: Provision a Terraform Component with OpenTofu​

note

In the following examples, we'll assume that tofu is an Atmos alias for the terraform command.

aliases:
  tofu: terraform

Once you've configured Atmos to utilize tofu — either by adjusting the default terraform.command in the atmos.yaml or by specifying the command for an individual component — provisioning any component follows the same procedure as you would typically use for Terraform.

For example, to provision a Terraform component using OpenTofu, run the following commands:

atmos tofu plan eks --stack=ue2-dev
atmos tofu apply eks --stack=ue2-dev

where:

  • eks is the Terraform component to provision (from the components/terraform folder)
  • --stack=ue2-dev is the stack to provision the component into

Short versions of all command-line arguments can be used:

atmos tofu plan eks -s ue2-dev
atmos tofu apply eks -s ue2-dev