Controlling the CLI through environment variables

content/blog/controlling-the-cli-through-environment-variables/index.md

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+---
+title: All Pulumi CLI flags are now supported as environment variables
+date: 2025-11-21
+meta_desc: "You can now configure all Pulumi CLI flags via environment variables, and use tools like direnv to define project-wide settings"
+meta_image: meta.png
+authors:
+    - tom-harding
+tags:
+    - features
+    - iac
+    - release
+    - cli
+
+social:
+    twitter: |
+        All Pulumi CLI flags now support environment variables! Set any flag with PULUMI_OPTION_*. Combine with direnv to version-control your team's CLI configuration. Available in v3.208.0+
+    linkedin: |
+        Pulumi v3.208.0 adds environment variable support for all CLI flags.
+
+        Key highlights:
+        → Set any CLI flag as an environment variable using PULUMI_OPTION_* prefix
+        → Version control your team's CLI defaults with direnv
+        → You no longer need to repeat --verbose, --refresh, --target flags across commands
+        → Command-line flags override env vars when you need flexibility
+
+        This means your CLI configuration can live alongside your infrastructure code, consistent across your entire team.
+---
+
+With the release of [Pulumi v3.208.0](https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.208.0), all CLI flags can now be configured as environment variables. This addresses a common friction point of having to remember the same flags across multiple commands and of ensuring that your entire team uses consistent CLI options.
+
+<!--more-->
+
+## Use cases
+
+An example use case might be that you want to always refresh state before operations, or re-run programs during refresh and destroy (using [`--run-program`](https://www.pulumi.com/blog/improved-refresh-destroy-experience/)). But remembering to add `--refresh` every time is tedious.
+
+Another example is you're working on a specific subset of your infrastructure and need to pass the same `--target` or `--exclude` flags repeatedly across multiple operations.
+
+You're working in a CI environment where you want to skip interactive prompts and previews. That means adding `--yes` and `--skip-preview` to every single command in your pipeline.
+
+The usual workaround, if there is no env var already, is writing wrapper scripts or shell aliases, but these become another thing to maintain and share across your team.
+
+## How it works
+
+Any CLI flag can now be set as an environment variable. The naming convention is straightforward: prefix the flag name with `PULUMI_OPTION_`, and convert dashes to underscores.
+
+For example:
+
+```shell
+export PULUMI_OPTION_REFRESH=true
+```
+
+Target specific resources without repeating flags:
+
+```shell
+export PULUMI_OPTION_TARGET=foo,bar
+# Equivalent to: --target foo --target bar
+```
+
+This works for any flag the CLI accepts. The environment variable takes precedence if you don't explicitly pass the flag on the command line.
+
+## Using with direnv for project-level defaults
+
+This becomes particularly useful when combined with tools like [`direnv`](https://direnv.net/). You can define project-specific CLI defaults in a `.envrc` file at the root of your project:
+
+```shell
+# Enable very verbose logging for debugging purposes
+export PULUMI_OPTION_VERBOSE=3
+
+# Always refresh before any Pulumi operation
+export PULUMI_OPTION_REFRESH=true
+
+# Skip previews and any dialogs or user prompts
+export PULUMI_OPTION_YES=true
+export PULUMI_OPTION_SKIP_PREVIEW=true
+```
+
+Now, running `direnv allow .` in this directory means that, whenever we access this directory, these options will be automatically applied to all commands that we run until we leave the directory\!
+
+## Wrapping up
+
+We hope that this change makes Pulumi much easier to configure across a range of different environments, and gives you another tool for managing operation defaults across your team. Thanks for reading, and feel free to share any feedback on [GitHub](https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi), [X](https://twitter.com/pulumicorp), or our [Community Slack](https://slack.pulumi.com/).