Atlantis sandbox submission review

[joshgav]

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Atlantis is a tool for automating Terraform workflows proposed to CNCF sandbox in https://github.com/cncf/sandbox/issues/60. This issue tracks discussions and reviews of Atlantis to help with accepting it in CNCF sandbox.

We've asked @jamengual and team to join an upcoming TAG meeting to discuss the following about the project.

Please plan to present for about 20 minutes, followed by 5-10 minutes of questions and answers from TAG members.

• the values this project proposes to end users
• the project's high-level technical architecture
• a brief demo of experiences and UIs
• the project's near-term roadmap
• state of the project's community and governance
• comparison with existing projects

[jamengual]

Hi Josh can you confirm is should prepare for 11/11 or later TAG meeting?

[joshgav]

Hi @jamengual could you present at the 12/6 meeting of the TAG? We have another project presenting on 11/15 now, and folks will want to review Kubecon in that 11/15 meeting too. To give you the most time and flexibility 12/6 would be best.

Thanks and looking forward!

[jamengual]

not a problem, I can do 12/6

[jamengual]

Hi @joshgav, what are the details of the meeting on Wednesday? Where and how do we present?

Thanks.

[joshgav]

Hi @jamengual - info is in our agenda/notes doc here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OykvqvhSG4AxEdmDMXilrupsX2n1qCSJUWwTc3I7AOs/

Please join the Zoom call there at 11am US Eastern time on Wednesday - here's a conversion tool set to that time: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20231206T160000&p1=64&p2=tz_gmt&p3=tz_cet

Thanks and see you then!

[jamengual]

Awesome, see you there.

[jamengual]

@joshgav here are the issue link I referred on the presentation.

https://github.com/runatlantis/atlantis/issues/3686#issuecomment-1699343470

https://github.com/runatlantis/atlantis/issues/3663#issuecomment-1674038026

[joshgav]

Thank you @jamengual for presenting, here's the info shared:

• Recording: https://youtu.be/5Pl5wWL103M?t=553
• Notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OykvqvhSG4AxEdmDMXilrupsX2n1qCSJUWwTc3I7AOs/edit#heading=h.uwtaxxogqm9v

Values

• Atlantis is a GitOps controller for Terraform
• Atlantis applies Terraform plans in reaction to comments in PRs that include Terraform files

History

• existed since 2018 and earlier
• has not reached 1.0 but lots of people use it in production
• Slack group with strong community
• originally the project was under Hashicorp's management but Hashicorp has left it to the community now
  • Hashicorp is supportive of CNCF taking over this project, see https://github.com/runatlantis/atlantis/issues/3686#issuecomment-1699343470
• 90% of features proposed and added by community
• original maintainers have left project

Architecture

• installation
  • it's a Go binary that can be run anywhere
  • can be hosted in K8s using Helm charts, there's a Docker image, some folks run it in VMs or EC2
  • user configures a webhook subscription in their git provider to send messages to Atlantis service
• current design is to use git providers' existing collaboration interfaces, like discussions in GitHub issues
• desire to include an API-driven mechanism too rather than only reacting to VCS interfaces
• ultimately runs Terraform commands in the server and writes status back to PR
• currently some statefulness to track and lock activities associated with specific work items; desire to make stateless to be more scaleable

Goals, roadmap

• integrate with other services like Argo, CI/CD pipelines
• establish a standard release process using post-merge hooks
• don't only depend on VCS (GitHub) interface
• all hard-coded for Terraform, adjust for OpenTofu
• policy checking also hardcoded to use conftest, adjust to support multiple policy providers

Challenges

• lack of long-term maintainers
• need better regression tests for new features - to better support one-off contributions without breaking other features
• "patch"-level fixes were unexpectedly breaking users - so just added a process to cut "minor" releases too
• difficult to integrate and test different VCS providers - don't always have access to VCS systems - GitHub heavily favored
• project was previously controlled by Hashicorp

Similar

• Scalar, Env0, TFC, Spacelift
• others don't use VCS interface
• there is more than Terraform in the workflow - can apply policies like checking costs with InfraCost
• can run post-merge actions once PR is merged

Questions

• Why apply for Sandbox if you have such wide adoption? Perhaps apply for Incubation instead?
  • want to focus on building contributor base and wait on due diligence so sandbox is a good fit
  • incubation requires more work than sandbox which may not be needed
• How many contributors outside the core maintainers?
  • 3 core maintainers, 3 regular contributors
• What is the risk of you or Pepe leaving the project or spinning off onto a new project and not having time to contribute anymore?
  • They are committed, but it's a concern...
  • This is one of the reasons to join CNCF - attract more contributors
• Do you expect previous maintainers to return due to these changes or do you consider it unlikely?
  • Maybe but haven't contacted them
• What support do you expect from joining CNCF? How can the TAG help you?
  • To increase number of long-term maintainers
  • To improve governance
  • To bring assurances to users
• Does this support OpenTofu too? Should this be in the OpenTofu organization?
  • want to be neutral to TF and OpenTofu
• Will there be licensing problems with Terraform?
  • Hashicorp agreed to donate the project to the CNCF if it gets accepted and believes it isn't effected by license changes, see https://github.com/runatlantis/atlantis/issues/3663#issuecomment-1674038026
  • Project created by one of their employees so best to get their agreement
  • All is Apache2, all domains and names are in control of current maintainers
• Is it okay that you ship the Terraform binary in the Docker image? Yes, as long as it's not resold commercially - that needs Hashicorp's agreement. But it would not be possible for others to commercialize the project.

[chenrui333]

~👋 Hi folks, Atlantis maintainer here, just want to checkin where we are with this thread. Thanks!~

just saw the TOC vote in the toc repo, I think I am all good. Thanks!

[thschue]

The presentation is done, and currently, there are no open action items. Therefore, closing this ticket.

Please feel free to contact us if you need our support!