Atmos Introspection

Purpose

Atmos provides powerful introspection commands (describe and list) for querying the stack graph, component configurations, dependencies, and change impact. AI agents operating in a terminal should use these commands to understand the user's workspace instead of guessing at configurations.

When to Use Introspection

• Before generating configuration -- Run atmos describe component to see the current resolved config
• To find dependencies -- Run atmos describe dependents to see what depends on a component
• To understand project structure -- Run atmos list stacks and atmos list components
• For CI/CD -- Run atmos describe affected or atmos list affected to detect changed stacks
• To debug configuration -- Use --provenance to trace where values originate

Describe Commands

atmos describe component