Skip to main content

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:

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:

  1. Parse your Terraform configuration
  2. Generate a plan of proposed changes
  3. Discover your existing infrastructure
  4. Calculate the blast radius and potential risks
  5. 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​

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​

  1. Make infrastructure changes locally
  2. Run overmind terraform plan to analyze impact
  3. Review risks and adjust as needed
  4. Deploy with overmind terraform apply

Team Deployment​

  1. Create pull request with infrastructure changes
  2. Overmind automatically analyzes changes via CI/CD
  3. Team reviews blast radius and risks
  4. Deploy after approval with tracking enabled

Enterprise Deployment​

  1. Changes flow through approval pipeline
  2. Overmind provides risk context at each stage
  3. Deployment tracked with before/after snapshots
  4. Results feed back into organizational learning

Next Steps​

Once you understand change creation basics:

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.