version: "1.0.0" 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

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:

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 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

CLICOLOR=0 disables color unless forced. Nonempty NO_COLOR always wins, even over --no-color=false.

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

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.