Workflow names

<name> is a placeholder for a workflow name you choose, such as deploy or plan-all. It is the YAML map key beneath workflows, not a literal key with angle brackets or an additional name: field.

# workflows/release.yaml
workflows:
  plan-all:
    description: Plan the network and application
    steps:
      - command: terraform plan vpc
      - command: terraform plan app

Run the workflow using its exact name:

atmos workflow plan-all --file release -s tenant1-ue2-dev

Naming recommendations

Prefer descriptive lowercase names with hyphens, usually starting with a verb: deploy, plan-all, validate-stacks, or rotate-credentials. Keep names stable so scripts and other workflows can refer to them reliably. Avoid spaces and shell-sensitive characters to simplify CLI usage.

Lowercase and hyphens are recommendations, not an exclusive schema requirement; uppercase letters, underscores, and periods are also accepted. Avoid name and description: the workflow map's schema reserves those keys for string metadata.

Names and files

Names are case-sensitive. Workflow names identify entries within a manifest's workflows map. Two entries in that map need distinct names. Different files may use the same workflow name.

When a name is unique, Atmos can discover the workflow and you can omit --file. Use --file when the name occurs in multiple files or when a script should select a particular file explicitly. Files are resolved under the configured workflows.base_path.

For dependencies.workflows, a plain workflow name refers to the same file. A cross-file dependency must also specify file. Workflow names are separate from the optional names of individual steps inside the workflow.