Atmos Pro

Atmos Pro is the recommended solution for automating Terraform and OpenTofu workflows in GitHub Actions. It provides enterprise-grade GitOps capabilities including ordered deployments, drift detection, and policy controls — all without the cost and vendor lock-in of traditional TACOS platforms.

You will learn

• Recommended approach for automating Terraform in the reference architecture
• Native GitHub Actions integration with no external dependencies
• Replaces legacy GitHub Actions GitOps workflows

The Problem

While GitHub Actions provides a solid foundation for CI/CD, it lacks the specialized tooling needed for complex infrastructure deployments. Teams face several challenges:

1. Limited Deployment Control — GitHub Actions doesn't provide built-in mechanisms for ordered deployments or dependency management between infrastructure components
2. Poor Visibility — Understanding the impact of changes across your infrastructure requires manual investigation
3. Insufficient Guardrails — Basic GitHub Actions workflows don't enforce deployment policies or prevent dangerous operations
4. Drift Management — Keeping infrastructure in sync with code requires additional tooling and manual processes
5. Multi-Cloud Complexity — Managing deployments across different cloud providers adds another layer of complexity

Traditional Terraform Automation and Collaboration Software (TACOS) solutions like Terraform Cloud, Spacelift, or Env0 attempt to solve these problems but often come with significant costs and vendor lock-in.

Our Solution

Atmos Pro enhances GitHub Actions with enterprise-grade features specifically designed for infrastructure deployment:

1. Ordered Deployments — Ensure infrastructure components are deployed in the correct sequence based on their dependencies
2. Dependency Visualization — Automatically generate and maintain dependency graphs for your infrastructure
3. Drift Detection — Continuously monitor and report on infrastructure drift with automated remediation options
4. Enhanced Guardrails — Implement policy controls and approval gates to prevent dangerous operations
5. Native GitOps — Leverage Git as the single source of truth with full audit trails and change history
6. Beautiful Job Summaries — Clear, actionable insights into deployment status and changes

How It Works

Atmos Pro integrates seamlessly with your GitOps workflow, providing automated infrastructure planning and deployment through two main processes:

Pull Request Workflow

When a developer creates a pull request, Atmos Pro automatically triggers the planning process:

1. Developer Makes a Change — Infrastructure code is modified in a feature branch
2. Code Is Pushed — Changes are pushed to the feature branch
3. GitHub Actions Trigger — Atmos affected stacks are identified
4. Atmos Uploads — Affected stacks information is uploaded
5. Atmos Pro Dispatches — Plan workflows are triggered for affected components
6. Status Updates — Atmos Pro maintains a status comment showing the progress of plans

Merge Workflow

When a pull request is merged, Atmos Pro automatically handles the deployment:

1. Pull Request Is Merged — Changes are merged into the main branch
2. GitHub Actions Trigger — Atmos affected stacks are identified
3. Atmos Uploads — Affected stacks information is uploaded
4. Atmos Pro Dispatches — Apply workflows are triggered for affected components
5. Status Updates — Atmos Pro maintains a status comment showing the progress of deployments

Drift Detection

Infrastructure drift occurs when your deployed resources no longer match your Terraform configuration — whether from manual console changes, external automation, or incomplete applies. Left unchecked, drift creates security vulnerabilities, compliance violations, and deployment failures.

Atmos Pro provides automated drift detection that runs scheduled Terraform plans against your infrastructure, identifies changes, and offers multiple remediation paths including auto-remediation, manual review via pull request, or accepting changes into your code.

See Drift Detection for configuration details and best practices.

Migrating from Legacy GitOps

If you're currently using the legacy GitHub Actions GitOps workflows, Atmos Pro provides a simplified and more powerful alternative. The legacy approach required complex workflow configurations and custom GitHub Actions. Atmos Pro replaces this with a streamlined setup that handles dependency ordering, drift detection, and policy controls automatically.

See the Migration Guide for step-by-step instructions.

Why a Hosted Service?

Atmos Pro exists to solve problems that can't realistically be solved inside a CLI. These are capabilities that physically require a hosted control plane:

1. Ordered Dependencies — Ensuring components deploy in the correct sequence across distributed workflows
2. Coordinated Rollouts — Workflow dispatching that spans multiple GitHub Actions runs
3. Drift Detection — Scheduled infrastructure scanning and tracking over time
4. Distributed Locking — Workspace and stack-level locking across concurrent operations

The open-source Atmos CLI will always remain fully featured for local and CI/CD workflows. Atmos Pro is its hosted counterpart, designed for teams that need orchestration, coordination, and visibility across large infrastructures.

Self-Hosted Option

We may eventually introduce a self-hosted commercial edition for regulated or air-gapped environments. For now, Atmos Pro is SaaS only.

References

1. Setup Documentation — Learn how to set up and configure Atmos Pro for your infrastructure
2. atmos-pro.com — Full documentation for Atmos Pro features and capabilities
3. atmos.tools — Core Atmos CLI documentation

Get Started

Set up Atmos Pro for your infrastructure repository to automate Terraform workflows with enterprise-grade controls. Setup Atmos Pro