Configure Component Provisioning

The provision section controls automatic, just-in-time creation of supporting infrastructure (Terraform state backends) and execution environments (isolated workdirs) before component commands run. Use it to remove manual bootstrap steps and to enable safe concurrent execution.

Experimental

Two Independent Capabilities

Component provisioning is split into two focused capabilities you can enable independently:

📄️ Backend Provisioning

Automatically create the Terraform state backend (S3 bucket, lockfile) the first time a component runs.

📄️ Workdir Provisioning

Run each component instance in its own isolated working directory under .workdir/ for safe concurrent execution.

Use Cases

• Backend Bootstrap — Eliminate the chicken-and-egg problem of needing a state backend before you can deploy the component that creates it. See Backend Provisioning.
• Isolated Execution — Run multiple components in parallel without .terraform/, lockfile, or varfile collisions. See Workdir Provisioning.
• Just-in-Time Source Provisioning — Fetch remote component sources on demand into a per-instance workdir on fresh CI runners. See Workdir Provisioning.

Configuration Scope

The provision block can appear at three levels and is deep-merged across them. Lower levels override higher levels, so a component can opt out of any default by setting enabled: false.

Level	Path	Applies To
Global	settings.provision in atmos.yaml	Every component, every stack (workdir only today)
Toolchain	terraform.provision, helmfile.provision, packer.provision, ansible.provision	Every component of that toolchain
Component	components.<type>.<name>.provision	A single component instance

Schema Summary

components:
  terraform:
    vpc:
      provision:
        backend:
          enabled: true   # See: Backend Provisioning
        workdir:
          enabled: true   # See: Workdir Provisioning

Key	Applies To	Documentation
provision.backend.enabled	Terraform components only	Backend Provisioning
provision.workdir.enabled	Terraform, Helmfile, Packer, Ansible	Workdir Provisioning

Related

• Terraform Backend Configuration — The separate backend: block that describes where state is stored.
• Settings: Provision Defaults — Global workdir defaults in atmos.yaml.
• atmos terraform workdir — CLI commands for managing workdirs.
• atmos terraform backend — CLI commands for backend management.