Skip to main content
The safest way to get started with formae is read-only. Point it at a cloud account and it discovers and catalogs everything running there as unmanaged resources, touching nothing until you ask it to. This is how you get the lay of the land before you adopt or deploy.
Before you start: you need a discoverable target for the account you want to explore. If you haven’t set one up, do Create a target first (targets are discoverable by default).
1

Let discovery run

formae scans each discoverable target right after you apply it, and again every few minutes. List your targets to see which ones it is scanning:
  formae inventory
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
                ╭───────────╮
  1 Resources   │ 2 Targets │   3 Stacks    4 Policies 
────────────────╯           ╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Label ▲                   Namespace              Discoverable    Config                                         
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
eu-north-1                AWS                    yes             Region: eu-north-1, Type: AWS                  

Showing 1 of 1 targets
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  /: query
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ↑↓/j/k: navigate  enter: detail  /: search  s: sort  r: refresh  1-4: tab  q: quit                           ?: help
The output has a discoverable column; those are the targets formae scans. The first scan of a large account can take a few minutes.
2

See what it found

List everything formae discovered but is not managing:
  formae inventory
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 ╭─────────────╮
 │ 1 Resources │   2 Targets    3 Stacks    4 Policies 
─╯             ╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Label ▲                      Stack              Type                             NativeID                               
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
demo-igw-1                   ⚠ unmanaged        AWS::EC2::InternetGateway        igw-08143e60f8d577b3a                  
demo-igw-2                   ⚠ unmanaged        AWS::EC2::InternetGateway        igw-04aef1b32b5c06823                  
igw-02394c20322e9a98e        ⚠ unmanaged        AWS::EC2::InternetGateway        igw-02394c20322e9a98e                  

Showing 3 of 3 resources (filtered)
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  / managed:false                                                                                                /: edit query
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ↑↓/j/k: navigate  enter: detail  /: search  s: sort  r: refresh  1-4: tab  q: quit                                   ?: help
The list shows the first 10 by default; raise it with --max-results, and filter by attribute to focus:
Nothing here is under management. These are resources that exist in your cloud, catalogued so you can decide what to do with them.

​
See also