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Hey everyone! I’ve been trying to setup Infracost ...
# general
w
Hey everyone! I’ve been trying to setup Infracost in CircleCI pipeline and managed to
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generate an Infracost JSON file as the baseline
+ 
generate a diff by comparing the latest code change with the baseline
and the Infracost PR comments gets published as expected, however for some reason the 
infracost
estimate remains: 
unchanged
every time and it does not seem to update 📉 and 📈 emojis as changes are pushed --- What I’ve checked so far:
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[x] CircleCI Box: /tmp dir structure

.
├── base
├── circle-agent-runner.pid
├── circleci-1594698576
├── circleci-ts.sock
├── infracost.json
└── infracost-base.json

[x] ran cost estimate breakdown locally 
infracost breakdown --path .

It produced all the cloud resources that got detected while on the PR it showed only the ones that got changed --- on local and on the PR the overall cost however matches as expected! 

[?] as I have CircleCI orb [circleci/terraform@3.1.0] for terraform, did terraform show -json plan.out > infracost-base.json so I can persist it and attach it within the Infracost job but somehow got lost on the way and not sure if that is needed as Infracost job itself already produced the terraform plan ...
Any advise or direction on how to continue will be greatly appreciated!
b
Hello! Can you share the comment command you're using?
w
sure! --- formatting does not seem well, though!
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- run:
          name: Post Infracost comment
          command: |
              # Extract the PR number from the PR URL
              PULL_REQUEST_NUMBER=${CIRCLE_PULL_REQUEST##*/}
              infracost comment github --path=/tmp/infracost.json \
                                       --repo=$CIRCLE_PROJECT_USERNAME/$CIRCLE_PROJECT_REPONAME \
                                       --pull-request=$PULL_REQUEST_NUMBER \
                                       --github-token=$GITHUB_TOKEN \
                                       --behavior=update
b
W/r/t the terraform plan creation: is there a reason you're generating a plan? Infracost parses HCL without TF binary, and it's much quicker, so if you don't need the plan for Infracost, you can skip it 🙂
The comment command looks okay, may I also ask how you're generating the diff? Do you follow our examples maybe?
w
sure! And yes followed the example as it is available from here: link
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- run:
          name: Generate Infracost cost estimate baseline
          command: |
              infracost diff --path=${TF_ROOT} \
                            --format=json \
                            --compare-to=/tmp/infracost-base.json \
                            --out-file=/tmp/infracost.json
My initial thought was I need to generate terraform plan from the 
circleci orb
which I am using and use it so I can attach it to the infracost job --- then found out that is not needed as infracost does it already anyway
b
Ah, I think I see the problem in our docs: the idea is to generate the baseline against your main/master branch. So when you diff it with your feature branch, there, well, will be a diff 😄 It seems like the instructions have an error on this line: https://github.com/infracost/infracost-circleci/blob/master/README.md?plain=1#L80
Instead of 
TF_ROOT
it should be 
/tmp/base
where we clone the main branch on line https://github.com/infracost/infracost-circleci/blob/master/README.md?plain=1#L62
Could you try to change it and re-run?
w
sure! Will do it now! 🙂
Just to make sure, I got this right!
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jobs:
  infracost:
    docker:
      - image: infracost/infracost:ci-0.10
    environment:
      TF_ROOT: /tmp/base
      BASE_BRANCH: poc/setup-infracost
changed 
TF_ROOT
to 
/tmp/base
and for 
BASE_BRANCH
I am still using the feat/ branch --- in this case 
poc/setup-infracost
b
I think 
BASE_BRANCH
should be the branch you want to compare with
It can be main/master or maybe another branch, but not the same as your feature branch, otherwise they will have identical TF code, right?
Oh, one more thing, sorry, missed it
Yeah, sorry, I'm slow 😄
TF_ROOT: /tmp/base
- TF_ROOT is the main path of your code from feature branch, in the example it is 
terraform
Let me explain the flow 🙂
1. We clone your feature branch to 
TF_ROOT
- it is our main place to run Infracost 2. We clone the master branch to 
/tmp/base
- it is our baseline place 3. We run 
infracost breakdown --path /tmp/base --out-file /tmp/infracost-base.json --format json
to generate the baseline Infracost data 4. Now we need to run 
infracost diff --path TF_ROOT --compare-to /tmp/infracost-base.json
command (with other flags) - this way we compare baseline with your feature branch changes
So in your case you would change only one line - the one with 
infracost breakdown
command
Let me push the fix to our example, hopefully it would make sense visually 🙂
w
Explaining the whole flow has been very useful! Appreciate it very much! 🙏
b
Let's see if this works 🙂
w
testing it now!
b
Awesome! 🦜 Glad it worked! 🙂
w
I’ve spent quite a lot of time trying to figure it out and couldn’t so that has been amazing! 🙂
b
To be fair, it's our example had an error, so you were not wrong 😄
Sorry about that 😄
Thank you for your patience! We fixed the issue, hopefully other CircleCI users will have a smoother experience 🙂
w
All good! I guess you hear that a lot of time, but you guys are making a difference and this tools brings a lot of value! 🙂 If there is anything I can help out with or contribute with my humble experience I will be more than happy to take on anything you got on your backlog!
b
Oh, thank you for the kind words! This means a lot to us infraheart
If you're willing to contribute, we have some issues that are good to get familiar with the Infracost code: https://github.com/infracost/infracost/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22good+first+issue%22.
Look around and if you find anything you like, just leave a comment that you'd like to work on it, and we'll gladly assign you 🙂
Thank you for using Infracost and for your interest! 🙂
Please forgive me for a shameless plug: we are also working on our SaaS with the goal to help your team and organization to tackle the cloud costs even better than CLI alone. https://dashboard.infracost.io/
w
will sure check it out!
Hey @busy-agent-35515 have been using Infracost for sometime now and it works great. There is something that I noticed when you try to POST Infracost on Github - I get following 
422 Validation Failed
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422 Validation Failed [{Resource:IssueComment Field:data Code:unprocessable Message:Body is too long (maximum is 65536 characters)}]
It seems the Terraform plan output is too big to display --- any idea how I can navigate this?
b
Hey! Glad to hear you have a nice experience! 🙂 How do you do that? Using 
infracost comment github
or doing a API request directly?
c
And which infracost CLI version are you using? This was supposed to be fixed in v0.10.10
b
Yep, that was my next question. Thanks Tim! 😄
c
Although looking at that PR we use 
GitHubMaxMessageSize = 262144
hmmm
b
Yeah, it doesn't translate number of characters == the number of bytes
Ah, I left a comment about that, in the commit message though, not in code: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/27190#discussioncomment-3254953
w
I am currently using 
Infracost v0.10.13
for the Infracost CLI version
just to follow up on Vadim’s comment - I am using 
infracost comment github
as part of the Post Infracost comment block for CircleCI
b
Hm, interesting 🤔 As Tim mentioned, we fixed this issue and your CLI version should be okay. Let me try to replicate that
w
could it be that I am still using this docker image
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docker:
      - image: infracost/infracost:ci-0.10
I mean, if a new img is released with an updated tag
b
Yeah, this image should have the latest 0.10.x version
Can you try to pull it just in case?
w
sure, will try it now
b
w
just pulled it 
infracost/infracost:ci-0.10
I’ve tried with following versions of the docker img
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ci-0.10.13
ci-latest
and still getting the error
b
I'm still trying to go over the limit. You need a bunch of resources for that 😅
Okay, got the error now
Hm, okay, seems like the message size is still off, although the truncation works 🤔
We're going to fix that and it should be out with the next release, but until then, you might be blocked 😞
w
all good, Vadim! That will not stop me from using Infracost as my team has seen immense value up until now — will be around and wait for the new release 🙂
any idea, when is it expected?
b
Not sure, maybe next week
By the way, have you tried our new GitHub App integration?
With it you don't need CircleCI integration, however, it's part of Infracost Cloud plan
w
I haven’t, I would have given it a try, it’s not RFC compliant though that is why I am stuck with CircleCI --- I mean within the company that I work at
b
Oh, I see
w
Hey @busy-agent-35515 it’s me again, apologies for bothering! Here is what I am trying to do: I have a CircleCI workflow, which has a terraform orb and I’ve managed to generate the 
Terraform plan JSON
and it produced the file 
plan.json
which now I am trying to pass over to the Infracost job --- however I cannot attach it to workspace, because that’s already taken for the base branch … also I cannot pass it over to 
TF_ROOT: terraform/plan.json
’cause it won’t find it …
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- attach_workspace:
          at: /tmp
any ideas how can I pass the 
plan.json
file that got generated to the infracost and get the diff and output the calculated cost?
b
Hey! No worries 🙂
Can you show me the commands you're using?
w
sure
b
Usually we do something like 
infracost breakdown --path=path/to/code --out-file=/tmp/infracost.json --format=json
So it will save the Infracost JSON to /tmp/
Then we use 
infracost diff --path=path/to/code --compare-to=/tmp/infracost.json
The 
path/to/code
can be a Terraform JSON file too
w
this is the 
terraform
orb I am using
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orbs:
  terraform: i circleci/terraform@3.1.0
I have a CircleCI job called: 
terraform-build-deploy:
I produce the plan.json with
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terraform show -json plan.out > plan.json
b
Ah, okay
w
oh, I see the 
path=path/to/code
is where I tries to use the path to where the 
plan.json file
is sotred
but it won’t find it
b
It should be the explicit file in this case
w
as it attaches the workspace to 
/temp
b
path/plan.json
w
explicit file, you mean the one generated by Infracost ,right?
b
Sorry, I'll rephrase: when using TF JSON files, the 
--path=
should point to the file, not just the directory where it is located.
I'm not very familiar with CircleCI, is it possible to share the generated plan with other orbs?
My understanding is that the terraform orb generates the plan and stores it somewhere (like 
/temp
), and Infracost job would be able to access this 
/temp
so the command would look like 
infracost breakdown --path=/temp/plan.json
w
good question! not sure --- I am familar with using only 
workspaces
to share date between jobs
so if I generate the 
plan.json
from the terraform job in 
/temp
Infracost sohuld be able to find it
right
theortically
b
From this https://circleci.com/docs/workspaces/ looks like that the Infracost jobs need to have something like 
attach_workspace
to access the file
w
will generate the file in 
/temp
and then use
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- persist_to_workspace:
b
Yep, looks like it's required
w
to store it in 
/temp/plan.json
and see if Infracost will find it
give me a min and will try it
b
Hope this works 🙂
w
ah, the 
persist_to_workspace
won’t do it … it does not recognizr that there is such a dir/
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The specified paths did not match any files in /tmp
Here is what I am thinking of --- having another 
mid
job which carries the output from the 
plan.json
and then attaching the workspace to 
/tmp
where Infracost is looking for it
it ain’t very smart, but cannot think of anything else 😞
b
Sorry, I haven't used CircleCI, so can't be much help here 🥲
But first step is making it working, then refactor 🙂
The example in the docs also shows that "executor" should have the working directory set as
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working_directory: /tmp
w
oh, that is a good point! Will add the 
working_directory
and try it out again! Please don’t feel bad, I am very much 
greateful
for you taking the time and looking into it as I was stuck and making no progress and ran out of ideas --- hope I am not bothering you and asking always stuff 🙂
b
No worries! We want to make our users happy 🙂
w
@busy-agent-35515 managed to get it working with the 
plan.json
that I created! 🙂🎉 Do you know by any chance if I can pass two 
--path
within the
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infracost diff --path ...
as I have 
multiple
--- 
plan.json
files that I want to pass on and this is a bit tricky …
I’ve tried adding second 
---path
but it does not seem to be working …
b
Good job!
The diff command expects only one path and one compare-to. So if you have multiples, I guess you'll have to run the diff command N times
But then the comment/upload commands accept multiple paths to merge all diff info together
w
Alright! Will give it a try to have the infracost diff replicated and then if the infracost comment supports multiple paths should do the trick! 😉
The reason why I am doing 
this
is because I am expecting several 
tfstate
files which I want to merge into one eventually …
b
Are these different projects/repos?
w
It is a 
lerna
project with multiple 
Cloudfront
distributuons and each Cf distro has 
.tf
files associated with 
.tf
modules + Lambda etc…
and once setup, it will produce diff 
tfstate
files for diff scenarios
b
I wonder what is the baseline then?
w
good question! I am avoiding it, I mean I don’t setup 
baseline
at all --- I am using the 
Terraform plan JSON
and then run just
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infracost diff --path ./terraform/tfplan.json
and I am expecting multiple 
tfplan.json
files which I somehow want to merge together into one file
b
So diff will always show $0 -> $XXX change, right?
w
tbh don’t know yet, I guess you are right! 🙂
b
Okay, then in this case you don't need the diff command at all
You can just use 
infracost breakdown
and provide several 
--path
It will produce the infracost JSON that you can use with the comment command
The point of the 
diff
command is to have a baseline (for example, the master/main branch), and compare PR branches with the baseline
If you don't have baseline (aka previous state), then the diff will produce the identical output as breakdown
Sorry I misunderstood your setup
w
No, all good! This is a really good point though! 🙂 Using the 
infracost
breakdown allows to have multiple options --- will give it a try now
tried the 
infracost
breakdown and it ran fine as you described it! However, now onto the 
Infracost
comment I hit another roadblock 😞
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invalid Infracost JSON file version. Supported versions are 0.2 ≤ x ≤ 0.2
message has been deleted
b
The comment command expects Infracost JSON file, the one you generate via 
infracost breakdown --path path1 --path path2 --format json --out-file infracost.json
w
Thanks @busy-agent-35515 this is how I fixed it
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infracost breakdown --path=./terraform \
                                  --format=json \
                                  --out-file=./terraform/tfplan.json
had to pass first the 
./terraform
dir and then to 
--out-file
I just pointed to the 
tfplan.json
file which was expected
then within the 
infracost
comment
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infracost comment github --path=./terraform/tfplan.json \
message has been deleted
b
Awesome 🙂 We deliberately call the output file as 
infracost.json
to avoid confusion with tfplan files that have completely different format 🙂
w
Appreciate the help and sticking through all the Qs! 🙏
b
Of course 🙂
@witty-book-85526 Hello! Sorry it's been a month, but we finally released a new CLI version that fixes the long GitHub comments. Hope it'll still be useful for you.
w
Hey @busy-agent-35515 that’s brilliant! 🎉 🙏 💯 It will surely come in very handy!
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