Live Import

chant import <template-file> reads a template from disk. chant import --from <env> reads the live cloud or cluster instead, regenerating chant TypeScript from what is actually running. This is the cloud → code direction — the way to adopt infrastructure you didn’t author, or pull an orphan back into source.

How it works

chant import --from prod --output src/

1. Resolve the environment the way chant lifecycle diff --live does.
2. Call each project lexicon’s exportResources() capability for full-fidelity config.
3. Generate TypeScript with the same by-category organization as file import.

Unlike state, which only ever reads scrubbed metadata, live import emits the resource’s full input config — so it may surface secrets. The command prints a warning; review generated files before committing.

Selectors

Flag	Effect
--type <ResourceType>	only resources of this type
--name <name>	only the resource with this name
-d, --lexicon <name>	restrict to one lexicon (e.g. aws, k8s)
--owned	only chant-owned resources (carrying the ownership marker)
--verbatim	keep server-defaulted fields instead of stripping to declared shape

Per-provider fidelity

Each lexicon reads live config its own way and strips it to the shape you would have authored:

Lexicon	Source	Stripped by default
AWS	cloudformation get-template --template-stage Original	nothing — the original template is already declared shape
Azure	az group export (the env is the resource group)	nothing — the exported ARM template is already declared shape
Kubernetes	kubectl get <kinds> -A -o json	status, managedFields, server metadata, server annotations
GCP (Config Connector)	kubectl get <*.cnrm.cloud.google.com> -A -o json	status, server metadata, cnrm.cloud.google.com/* annotations

--verbatim keeps the stripped fields when you need an exact copy rather than a clean authoring starting point.

The adopt-an-orphan loop

When drift detection reports an orphan — something in the cloud that source doesn’t declare — live import is how you adopt it:

# 1. see what's orphaned
chant lifecycle plan prod

# 2. regenerate the orphan as chant TypeScript
chant import --from prod --name my-bucket --output src/

# 3. review, commit — the orphan is now declared

To automate this across many resources as a reviewable PR, use the ReconcileOp workflow, which runs exactly this loop and opens the PR for you.

See also

• Reconciling Lifecycle — the reconcile and apply workflows
• Lifecycle Models — where live import sits on the dial
• chant import — the full CLI reference