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When users create an environment they can enable drift detection and set its schedule. Administrators can set policies at the project level so that new environments inherit the policy upon creation.
Drift detection schedulingThe minimum interval between drift detection checks is 1 hour, regardless of the cron definition you configure. Checks more frequent than once a day are only available on the Enterprise plan.

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Configuring automatic drift remediation

This section controls how env zero automatically handles detected drift. Drift occurs when the actual state of your cloud resources deviates from the state defined in your IaC configuration.

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Understanding automatic remediation

env zero can automatically reconcile drift based on the option you select. Keep in mind:
  • Manual remediation: Manual remediation is always available, regardless of your automatic remediation settings.
  • Approval policies: Automatic remediation is subject to your project’s approval policies.

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Automatic remediation options

Choose one of the following options:
  • Disabled: Disables automatic drift remediation. When drift is detected, you must manually review and remediate the differences.
  • Deploy code changes to the cloud: If drift is detected, env zero runs a deployment using the latest configuration from your connected VCS. This assumes the desired state is accurately reflected in your code.
  • Create a pull request for manually modified cloud resources: If drift is detected and cloud resources appear to have been modified manually (outside of env zero), env zero creates a pull request in your VCS with the changes needed to bring your IaC configuration in line with the current cloud state.
  • If the cloud resource was manually changed, create a pull request; otherwise, deploy code changes to the cloud: A hybrid approach. Manual cloud modifications trigger a pull request for review; other drift triggers an automatic deployment from VCS.
Manual cloud modificationsAutomatic pull request creation for manual cloud modifications is only supported for Terraform >= 1.1 or OpenTofu.
Pull request creation
  • For automatic pull request creation, ensure you connect a supported VCS (GitHub or GitHub Self-Hosted) with write access and are managing Terraform or OpenTofu IaC.
  • If you are using another VCS, you can still use the pull request creation settings to review the proposed drift remediation changes in the env zero drift logs and manually create the pull request in your VCS.
Project Settings Policies page showing drift detection schedule and automatic remediation options
Drift detection policy configuration showing schedule settings and automatic remediation dropdown
New environments will inherit the policy by default

New environments will inherit the policy by default

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Next steps