[FEATURE REQ] Dry Run / what-if option

[RobertoBorges]

Please describe the feature.

Would be nice to have a Dry Run option.

Similar to Terraform Plan, or AZ CLI --what-if:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/deployment/group?view=azure-cli-latest#az-deployment-group-create:~:text=the%20template%20file.-,%2D%2Dwhat%2Dif,-%2Dw

This would allow to take actions or decisions in case something doesn't go as planned.

[github-actions]

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[CARLOSMECK]

I think this is a great idea, about to promote a large dev to test now, would be great to use a "plan" och "what-if" to see changes before commiting.

[guythetechie]

@RobertoBorges , @CARLOSMECK - I like the idea, will add to our backlog. We've made some changes in v7 that should make this possible.

[guythetechie]

Dry run mode is disabled by default in the publisher. You can configure it by:

• Setting the DRY_RUN configuration value to true | false
• Passing --dry-run to the publisher executable. This naked flag enables dry run mode.
• Passing --dry-run true|false to the publisher executable.

[GeorgeTMorris]

@guythetechie

Hi, thanks for adding the dry-run feature in v7.0.0-alpha.2.0.0! I'm using it in my Azure DevOps pipelines but not sure if I'm configuring it correctly.

My config:

# Set environment variable and CLI flag
if [[ "${{ parameters.dryRun }}" == "true" ]]; then
  export DRY_RUN="true"
  DRY_RUN_FLAG="--dry-run"
fi

# Pass to publisher
PUBLISHER_CMD+=("$DRY_RUN_FLAG")

What I see:

info: publisher[0]
      Putting workspaces/Dev/apis/my-api-v2...
info: publisher[0]
      Putting workspaces/Dev/policyFragments/inbound-backend-service...
warn: publisher[0]
      Running in dry-run mode. No changes will be made.
info: publisher[0]
      Putting workspaces/Dev/policyFragments/on-error-logging...
info: publisher[0]
      Putting workspaces/Dev/namedValues/keyvault-url...
info: publisher[0]
      Putting workspaces/Dev/backends/my-api-backend...
...
info: publisher[0]
      Publisher completed successfully.

My questions:

1. Is this the intended output, or am I missing a config option to see more detail (like create/update/delete actions or property diffs)?
2. Is there a way to see which resources would be deleted?

I'd like to use dry-run in PR pipelines so reviewers can see what will change - similar to a Terraform plan. If enhanced output is planned for a future release, totally understand - just want to make sure I'm not missing something!

Thanks!

[guythetechie]

@GeorgeTMorris - the output is intended. ApiOps only does two actions:

• Putting resources (Putting xyz... in the logs). We don't differentiate between creates and updates.
• Deleting resources (Deleting abc... in the logs). If your logs don't show deletes, then you either didn't pass a commit ID, or nothing in scope was deleted in that commit.

Are there any key features that you think are missing from the current implementation?

[GeorgeTMorris]

Thanks @guythetechie for the quick clarification! That explains it.

I was running in Full Sync mode (no COMMIT_ID set), which is why I wasn't seeing any delete operations. I'll try passing the commit ID in my next run to enable delta-based behavior.

Just thinking out loud on what could make dry-run even more useful for PR review workflows (I realize these might be non-trivial to implement):

• Create vs Update indicator - Even a simple [CREATE] / [UPDATE] label would help reviewers understand impact at a glance
• Summary counts - e.g., Dry-run complete: 3 creates, 8 updates, 2 deletes
• Property diff for updates - Showing which properties would change (similar to Terraform's ~ output)
• Structured output option - JSON/markdown export for pipeline artifacts or PR comments

I think these would bring APIOps closer to a "Terraform plan" experience, which is really helpful when teams need to review changes before applying.

Thanks again for the great work on this project!