Overview of how to create changes in Overmind
A change in Overmind represents any modification to your infrastructure that you want to analyze for impact and risk. This could be a Terraform deployment, a manual infrastructure update, or any other modification to your cloud resources.
This guide will help you understand how to create and manage changes effectively within Overmind.
What is a Change?
In Overmind, a change is created whenever you:
- Run
overmind terraform plan
to analyze proposed infrastructure modifications - Submit a Terraform plan through CI/CD integration
Each change includes:
- Blast radius analysis - What resources might be affected
- Risk assessment - Potential issues with your modifications
- Before/after snapshots - State comparison to validate results
Getting Started
Prerequisites
Before creating your first change, ensure you have:
- An Overmind account
- The Overmind CLI installed
- Access to your cloud credentials (AWS, Kubernetes, etc.)
- A Terraform project ready for analysis
Your First Change
The quickest way to create a change is through the CLI:
# Navigate to your Terraform project
cd your-terraform-project
# Create and analyze a change
overmind terraform plan
This command will:
- Parse your Terraform configuration
- Generate a plan of proposed changes
- Discover your existing infrastructure
- Calculate the blast radius and potential risks
- Open results in your browser
Change Creation Methods
1. Local Development (CLI)
Use the CLI for local development and testing:
# Analyze planned changes
overmind terraform plan
# Apply changes with tracking
overmind terraform apply -file .overmind/plan.out
Best for: Local development, testing changes, individual deployments
2. CI/CD Integration
Integrate Overmind into your existing pipeline for automated analysis:
GitHub Actions
Add the Overmind action to your workflow:
- uses: overmindtech/actions/submit-plan@main
with:
ovm-api-key: ${{ secrets.OVM_API_KEY }}
plan-json: ./tfplan.json
Manual Integration
For other CI/CD systems:
# Submit a plan for analysis
overmind changes submit-plan tfplan.json
# Get analysis results
overmind changes get-change --format markdown
Best for: Team deployments, automated workflows, consistent analysis
Understanding Change Analysis
When you create a change, Overmind performs several analyses:
Blast Radius Discovery
- Maps dependencies between resources
- Identifies resources that could be affected
- Shows relationships across accounts and services
Risk Assessment
- Evaluates potential failure points
- Identifies configuration issues
- Provides recommendations for safe deployment
Impact Visualization
- Interactive dependency graphs
- Resource relationship mapping
- Change timeline tracking
Configuration Requirements
AWS Access
Overmind needs read-only access to your AWS infrastructure. Configure this through:
- Temporary access: Uses your existing AWS credentials during CLI execution
- Managed sources: Permanent IAM role for continuous access (setup guide)
Kubernetes Access
For Kubernetes clusters, install the Overmind source:
helm repo add overmind https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/overmind/tools/helm/charts
helm install overmind-kube-source overmind/overmind-kube-source \
--set source.apiKey.value=YOUR_API_KEY \
--set source.clusterName=my-cluster
Best Practices
Before Creating Changes
- Configure managed sources for consistent access
- Set up blast radius preferences for your team
During Development
- Run
overmind terraform plan
before making changes - Review blast radius and risk assessments
- Use the interactive graph to understand dependencies
In Production
- Integrate with your CI/CD pipeline
- Use GitHub Actions for automated PR analysis
- Track deployment outcomes with
overmind terraform apply
Common Workflows
Individual Developer
- Make infrastructure changes locally
- Run
overmind terraform plan
to analyze impact - Review risks and adjust as needed
- Deploy with
overmind terraform apply
Team Deployment
- Create pull request with infrastructure changes
- Overmind automatically analyzes changes via CI/CD
- Team reviews blast radius and risks
- Deploy after approval with tracking enabled
Enterprise Deployment
- Changes flow through approval pipeline
- Overmind provides risk context at each stage
- Deployment tracked with before/after snapshots
- Results feed back into organizational learning
Next Steps
Once you understand change creation basics:
- Learn about Terraform workflows for detailed integration
- Explore blast radius configuration for customized analysis
- Try GitHub Actions integration for automated analysis
Troubleshooting
Common Issues
"No sources configured"
- Configure at least one managed source
- Ensure your AWS/Kubernetes credentials are accessible
"Plan parsing failed"
- Verify your Terraform plan is valid
- Check that you're running from the correct directory
"Blast radius incomplete"
- Ensure your sources have proper permissions
- Check that all relevant accounts are configured
For additional help, visit our support documentation or join our Discord community.