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Automate Common Workflows

Atmos Workflows combine multiple commands into executable units of work, ideal for automating common tasks and orchestrating “cold starts,” where you bring an environment up from scratch.

Workflows can call other workflows and be combined with Custom Commands. Usually, we use workflows to provision some combinations of Terraform components.

Defining workflows is entirely optional; use them if they are helpful for your project.

Step 0: Configure Your Project to Support Workflows​

To define workflows, update your atmos.yaml to tell it where to find your workflows.

Add the following workflows section and configure the base path to the workflows:

workflows:
  # Can also be set using 'ATMOS_WORKFLOWS_BASE_PATH' ENV var, or '--workflows-dir' command-line arguments
  # Supports both absolute and relative paths
  base_path: "stacks/workflows"

Step 0: Create an Atmos Workflow​

Now, let's create a workflow in the stacks/workflows directory.

   │   # Centralized stacks configuration
   └── stacks/
       └── workflows/
           └── weather.yaml

Add the following Atmos workflows to the stacks/workflows/weather.yaml file:

name: Workflows for Weather Station
description: Atmos workflows for managing Weather Station

workflows:

  plan-all:
    description: |
      Run 'terraform plan' on all 'station' components in all stacks
    steps:
      - command: terraform plan station -s dev
      - command: terraform plan station -s staging
      - command: terraform plan station -s prod

  apply-all:
    description: |
      Run 'terraform apply' on all 'station' components in all stacks
    steps:
      - command: terraform apply station -auto-approve -s dev
      - command: terraform apply station -auto-approve -s staging
      - command: terraform apply station -auto-approve -s prod

Step 0: Run the Atmos Workflow​

Run the following Atmos commands to execute the workflows:

# Execute the workflow `plan-all-vpc-flow-logs` from the workflow manifest `weather.yaml`
atmos workflow plan-all -f weather

# Execute the workflow `apply-all-components` from the workflow manifest `weather.yaml`
atmos workflow apply-all -f weather

The atmos workflow CLI command supports the --dry-run flag. If passed, the command will just print information about the executed workflow steps without executing them. For example:

atmos workflow plan-all -f weather --dry-run

Executing the workflow 'plan-all' from 'stacks/workflows/weather.yaml'

Executing workflow step: terraform plan station -s dev
Executing workflow step: terraform plan station -s staging
Executing workflow step: terraform plan station -s prod
tip

Refer to atmos workflow for more information on the atmos workflow CLI command

Want to go deeper on this topic?

Workflows can do a lot more than we're showing here. Workflows support templates, and can call other workflows. Learn More