ChatGPT vs Overmind: Two Different Approaches to Managing Terraform Changes
James Lane
June 27, 2025
Managing infrastructure changes safely has become one of the biggest challenges facing engineering teams today. With cloud environments growing more complex and the cost of mistakes higher than ever, teams need reliable ways to understand what their changes will actually do before hitting apply.
Two distinct approaches have emerged: AI-powered assistants like ChatGPT that help with code generation and review, and specialised tools like Overmind that focus on real-time change analysis and risk assessment. But which approach actually solves the problems teams face day-to-day?
ChatGPT has evolved into a comprehensive assistant for infrastructure work. In 2025, it goes beyond simple code generation to offer automated reviews, impact analysis, and integration with existing workflows.
The AI can write Terraform modules from scratch, refactor existing configurations, and review code for common issues like security vulnerabilities or compliance violations. It analyzes proposed changes to predict their impact and can even integrate with CI/CD pipelines to provide automated feedback during pull requests.
Here's what a typical ChatGPT workflow looks like:
# Generate a Terraform module
> "Create a Terraform module for an RDS instance with backup enabled"
# Review existing code
> "Review this Terraform file for security issues"
# Analyze changes
> "Explain what this terraform plan output will do"
ChatGPT excels at understanding patterns in your code and suggesting improvements based on best practices. It can generate documentation, explain complex configurations, and help with onboarding new team members who need to understand existing infrastructure.
While ChatGPT brings impressive capabilities to infrastructure work, it has some fundamental limitations when it comes to understanding your actual environment.
ChatGPT operates on static information - the code you show it, the plan output you paste, or the documentation you provide. It can't see your live infrastructure, understand current resource states, or map dependencies that exist outside your Terraform configurations.
This creates blind spots in several critical areas:
- Hidden Dependencies: Resources created through the AWS console, CloudFormation, or other tools won't be visible
- Current State: No understanding of what's actually running versus what's defined in code
- Cross-Account Relationships: Dependencies spanning multiple AWS accounts remain invisible
- Timing Context: No awareness of maintenance windows, peak usage periods, or deployment patterns
For teams managing complex, multi-service environments, these limitations can lead to changes that look safe on paper but cause unexpected issues in production.
Overmind takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of analyzing static code, it connects directly to your infrastructure through read-only APIs to understand the current state and relationships between resources.
When you run `overmind terraform plan`, here's what happens:
1. Live Infrastructure Analysis: Connects to your AWS account to map current resource states
2. Dependency Discovery: Finds relationships across 100+ AWS resource types, including resources not managed by Terraform
3. Blast Radius Calculation: Determines exactly which resources might be impacted by your changes
4. Risk Assessment: Provides human-readable explanations of potential issues
Setting up Overmind is straightforward:
# Install via homebrew (Mac)brew install overmindtech/overmind/overmind-cli
# Or via winget (Windows)winget install Overmind.Overmind CLI
# Run analysis on your Terraform workspaceovermind terraform plan
You'll need to configure read-only access to your AWS account and create an Overmind account, but the setup process guides you through each step.
The differences become clear when you compare outputs. ChatGPT might tell you:
*"This change will modify your RDS instance to enable automated backups. Consider the storage implications and backup window timing."
Overmind shows you:
- Specific Impact: "This RDS change will affect 3 Lambda functions that connect to this database"
- Hidden Dependencies: "Warning: This security group is also used by an EC2 instance created outside Terraform"
- Timing Risks: "Change detected during peak traffic hours (2-4 PM UTC)"
- Cross-Service Effects: "Route53 health checks monitor this RDS endpoint"
Let's look at a real example - updating an RDS instance configuration.
ChatGPT Analysis:
Resource: aws_db_instance.mainChange: enable automated backups
Impact: Storage costs will increase
Recommendation: Configure backup window during low-usage hours
Overmind Analysis:
- 4 Lambda functions currently connected to this database
- Security group sg-abc123 shared with production web servers
- CloudWatch alarms monitoring database performance
- Cross-account replication job reads from this instance
- Change scheduled during peak business hours - consider rescheduling
The ChatGPT analysis focuses on the direct change and general best practices. Overmind reveals the actual blast radius based on your current infrastructure state.
ChatGPT works best for:
- Writing new Terraform modules from scratch
- Learning Terraform concepts and best practices
- Code reviews focused on syntax and security patterns
- Generating documentation and explanations
- Teams with simpler, well-documented infrastructure
Overmind excels when:
- Your infrastructure includes resources created outside Terraform
- You need to understand cross-service dependencies
- Team members have varying levels of infrastructure knowledge
- Deployment timing matters for application availability
- You want to reduce reliance on tribal knowledge for safe deployments
ChatGPT and Overmind solve different parts of the infrastructure management puzzle. ChatGPT helps you write better code and understand Terraform concepts. Overmind helps you understand what your changes will actually do in your specific environment.
For teams managing complex, multi-service environments, the combination can be powerful - use ChatGPT to improve your Terraform practices, and Overmind to validate that your changes are safe to deploy.
Both tools are available today:
- ChatGPT: Available through OpenAI or integrated into various development tools
- Overmind: You can sign up for a free account and start analyzing your infrastructure changes immediately
The choice comes down to your team's needs: Do you need help writing infrastructure code, or do you need confidence that your changes won't break production?