Atmos Component Architecture

Components are the building blocks of infrastructure in Atmos. Each component is an opinionated, reusable unit of infrastructure-as-code -- typically a Terraform root module -- that solves a specific problem. Atmos separates the component implementation (code) from its configuration (stack manifests), enabling one implementation to be deployed many times with different settings.

What Components Are

In Atmos, a component consists of two parts:

1. Implementation -- The infrastructure code itself (a Terraform root module, Helmfile, or Packer template) stored in the components/ directory.
2. Configuration -- The settings that customize how the component is deployed, defined in stack manifests under the components section.

This separation is fundamental: you write the Terraform module once, then configure it differently for each environment, region, and account through stack YAML files.

Component Types

Atmos natively supports three component types: