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CLI Configuration

The Overmind CLI supports several configuration files that help customize your workflow and analysis settings. These files live in the .overmind/ directory within your Terraform project and provide persistent configuration for your team.

Blast Radius Parameters​

Control the depth and scope of dependency analysis with these CLI parameters:

--blast-radius-link-depth​

Sets how many levels deep Overmind should follow resource relationships when calculating blast radius.

# Shallow analysis - faster, might miss some dependencies
overmind changes submit-plan tfplan.json --blast-radius-link-depth 1

# Deep analysis - thorough, takes longer
overmind changes submit-plan tfplan.json --blast-radius-link-depth 5

# Default behavior (uses account settings)
overmind changes submit-plan tfplan.json

When to adjust:

  • Lower values (1-2): For quick checks or simple changes
  • Higher values (4-6): For critical changes where you need complete dependency mapping with no time constraints
  • Default (account settings): Works well for most infrastructure changes

--blast-radius-max-items​

Limits the total number of resources included in blast radius calculation to prevent analysis from becoming overwhelming.

# Limit to 100 resources for focused analysis
overmind changes submit-plan tfplan.json --blast-radius-max-items 100

# Allow larger blast radius for complex changes
overmind changes submit-plan tfplan.json --blast-radius-max-items 1000

# Default behavior (uses account settings)
overmind changes submit-plan tfplan.json

Practical usage:

  • Lower limits: Faster analysis, good for routine changes
  • Higher limits: Complete analysis for complex infrastructure
  • Very high limits: Use cautiously as analysis time increases significantly

Configuration Files​

Overmind supports local configuration files to maintain consistency across team deployments and automate common tasks.

Auto-Tag Rules File​

Create .overmind/auto-tag-rules.yaml to define automatic tagging rules for your changes.

Usage:

# Apply auto-tag rules from file
overmind changes submit-plan tfplan.json

# Override with different rules file
overmind changes submit-plan tfplan.json --auto-tag-rules custom-rules.yaml

File format:

rules:
  - name: My test rule in prod
    tag_key: prod
    enabled: true
    instructions: always set it to prod
    valid_values:
      - dogfood
      - prod

Rule structure:

  • name: Human-readable description of the rule
  • tag_key: The tag that appears on changes
  • enabled: Whether to apply this rule
  • instructions: Criteria for when to apply the tag
  • valid_values: Optional list of allowed values for the tag

Routine Changes Configuration​

Default location: .overmind/routine-changes-config.yaml CLI parameter: --routine-changes-config

Defines patterns that help Overmind identify routine changes with typically lower risk. Routine changes receive reduced risk scores and can be handled with less scrutiny.

Usage:

# Use routine config from file
overmind changes submit-plan tfplan.json

# Override with different config
overmind changes submit-plan tfplan.json --routine-changes-config team-config.yaml

File format:

sensitivity: 2.5
duration_in_days: 10
events_per_day: 3

Configuration options:

  • sensitivity: How responsive to frequency variations (must be positive)
  • duration_in_days: How many days of history to consider (minimum 1)
  • events_per_day: Expected frequency of changes per day (minimum 1)

This configuration helps Overmind determine what constitutes "routine" vs "unusual" change frequency for your infrastructure.

Configuration File Discovery​

The CLI looks for configuration files in this order:

  1. Explicit flags: Files specified with CLI parameters
  2. Project directory: .overmind/ folder in current directory
  3. Parent directories: Searches upward through directory tree
  4. UI fallback: Configuration from the Overmind web interface

Example Project Structure​

Here is an example projcet structure:

your-terraform-project/
├── .overmind/
│   ├── auto-tag-rules.yaml
│   ├── routine-changes-config.yaml
│   └── plan.out
├── main.tf
├── variables.tf
└── terraform.tfstate

Configuration Best Practices​

Team Configuration​

Version control your config files:

# Include in your repository
git add .overmind/auto-tag-rules.yaml
git add .overmind/routine-changes-config.yaml

Performance Tuning​

For routine changes:

# Quick analysis for frequent deployments
overmind changes submit-plan tfplan.json --blast-radius-link-depth 2 --blast-radius-max-items 200

For critical changes:

# Deep analysis for important infrastructure
overmind changes submit-plan tfplan.json --blast-radius-link-depth 5 --blast-radius-max-items 1000

CI/CD Integration​

# GitHub Actions example
- name: Submit Terraform Plan
  run: |
    overmind changes submit-plan tfplan.json \
      --auto-tag-rules .overmind/auto-tag-rules.yaml \
      --routine-changes-config .overmind/routine-changes-config.yaml \
      --blast-radius-link-depth 3 \
      --blast-radius-max-items 500

Troubleshooting Configuration​

Configuration not loading:

  • Verify file paths and YAML syntax
  • Check that files are readable by the CLI
  • Ensure you're running from the correct directory

Performance issues:

  • Reduce --blast-radius-max-items for faster analysis
  • Lower --blast-radius-link-depth for simpler changes

Getting file formats:

  • Use the Overmind web interface to configure rules and export the format
  • Run overmind changes submit-plan --help for parameter details

For additional help, visit our support documentation or join our Discord community.