atmos-settings

name	atmos-settings
description	Atmos global settings: settings, logs, errors, env, docs, metadata, version requirements, terminal behavior, telemetry, experimental flags, and non-subsystem atmos.yaml options
metadata	{"copyright":"Copyright Cloud Posse, LLC 2026","version":"1.0.0","category":"core-config"}

Atmos Settings

Use this skill for global atmos.yaml options that are not owned by a narrower subsystem skill.

Owned Sections

Section	Use for
settings	Global CLI behavior, terminal behavior, telemetry, experimental options
logs	Log level, log file path, debug output behavior
errors	Error output formatting and error reporting options
env	Environment variables applied to Atmos operations
docs	Documentation generation defaults
metadata	Project-level metadata such as name, tags, and version
version	Minimum or maximum Atmos version constraints

If a setting belongs to a subsystem such as templates, validation, auth, CI, or toolchain, load that subsystem skill instead.

Common Pattern

settings:
  terminal:
    pager: false
    syntax_highlighting:
      enabled: true
  telemetry:
    enabled: false

logs:
  level: Info

env:
  AWS_REGION: us-east-1

metadata:
  name: platform-infrastructure

Terminal Appearance and Color

settings.terminal controls Atmos's terminal output appearance (color, theme, width, unicode, syntax highlighting, pager). Fields (from pkg/schema/schema.go Terminal struct):

settings:
  terminal:
    color: true               # Explicitly force color on (overrides TTY auto-detection)
    no_color: false           # Deprecated: use the --no-color flag or ATMOS_NO_COLOR/NO_COLOR/CLICOLOR env vars instead
    force_color: false        # ENV-only (ATMOS_FORCE_COLOR) -- not settable from this config field
    theme: dracula             # Theme name; see `atmos theme list` for available names
    max_width: 120
    unicode: true
    syntax_highlighting:
      enabled: true
    pager: false               # false/true/off/on/"less"/a specific pager command

Precedence: no_color (config) is deprecated in favor of the --no-color flag/env vars below. IsColorEnabled logic: no_color forces color off; else explicit color: true forces it on; otherwise Atmos falls back to TTY auto-detection.

Flags and Environment Variables

Flag	Env vars	Effect
--no-color	ATMOS_NO_COLOR, NO_COLOR, CLICOLOR	Disable color output
--force-color	ATMOS_FORCE_COLOR, CLICOLOR_FORCE	Force color output even when not a TTY (e.g. piped/CI output, screenshots)

atmos theme Commands

Discover and preview themes (a theme controls tables, markdown rendering, and help text colors):

atmos theme list                 # List all available themes
atmos theme list --recommended   # Only themes tested for optimal compatibility
atmos theme show <theme-name>    # Preview a theme's palette and sample UI elements
atmos theme browse               # Interactive/searchable theme gallery (docs site)
atmos list themes                # Alias for 'theme list'; defaults to recommended-only, use --all for all

Activate a theme via ATMOS_THEME=<theme-name> env var or settings.terminal.theme in atmos.yaml.

Routing

Need	Load
Template settings	atmos-templates
Validation settings and policies	atmos-validation, atmos-schemas
Auth or identity settings	atmos-auth
Native CI settings	atmos-ci
Toolchain settings	atmos-toolchain
Stack/component settings fields	atmos-stacks, atmos-components

Guardrails

• Treat env as global process environment. Use component, workflow, command, or auth-specific env settings when only one execution context needs the variable.
• Do not put subsystem-specific details here just because they live under settings; route to the owning skill first.
• Prefer explicit, stable global settings over hidden shell assumptions.