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Why Atmos?

Atmos is a framework that helps teams succeed with Terraform from day one. It provides proven patterns, conventions, and tooling to manage complex, multi-environment infrastructure without the growing pains.

The Challenge​

As Terraform infrastructure grows, teams encounter predictable challenges:

  • Configuration sprawl: Duplicate code across environments (dev, staging, prod)
  • Complexity growth: Managing dozens or hundreds of AWS accounts and regions
  • Team coordination: Multiple teams working on shared infrastructure
  • Consistency: Ensuring standards and security policies across all deployments

Most teams solve these problems by trial and error, progressing through stages of increasing sophistication. This journey can take months or years, with each stage introducing new complexities.

The Atmos Approach​

Atmos lets you skip ahead by providing a complete framework with:

Separation of Configuration from Code

  • Keep your Terraform components generic and reusable
  • Configure environments with YAML, not code duplication
  • Components work anywhere without modification

DRY Without Templates

  • Deep-merge configurations for inheritance
  • Import shared settings across stacks
  • Override specific values where needed
  • No code generation or messy templating

Built for Scale

  • Manage hundreds of environments from a single repository
  • Multi-account, multi-region, multi-tenant patterns
  • Component catalogs for standardization
  • Workflow orchestration for complex deployments

Enterprise-Ready

  • Validation with OPA and JSON Schema
  • GitOps integration (GitHub Actions, Spacelift, Atlantis)
  • Vendoring for supply chain management
  • Comprehensive CLI for all operations

When to Use Atmos​

Atmos is ideal when you need to:

  • Manage multiple environments (dev, staging, prod across regions)
  • Scale Terraform across teams and accounts
  • Enforce consistency without code duplication
  • Reduce configuration complexity as infrastructure grows

If you're managing a single environment or simple infrastructure, vanilla Terraform might be sufficient. But when you find yourself copying and pasting configurations or struggling with environment management, it's time for Atmos.

Your Journey with Atmos​

Most Terraform teams progress through 10+ stages of maturity—from ClickOps to enterprise scale. Each stage solves previous problems but introduces new complexity.

Atmos helps you skip these growing pains by providing battle-tested solutions for every stage.

See the Terraform Maturity Journey

Next Steps​

Ready to get started? Follow our guided learning path:

  1. Understand Core Concepts - Component and Stack fundamentals
  2. Create Your First Stack - Simplest possible example
  3. Learn YAML in Atmos - Deep merge, scope, and functions
  4. Install Atmos - Get up and running

Or if you're migrating from another tool: