cloud-init will keep a 'status' file up to date for other applications wishing to use it to determine cloud-init status. It will manage 2 files: status.json result.json The files will be written to /var/lib/cloud/data/ . A symlink will be created in /run/cloud-init. The link from /run is to ensure that if the file exists, it is not stale for this boot. status.json's format is: { 'v1': { 'init': { errors: [] # list of strings for each error that occurred start: float # time.time() that this stage started or None end: float # time.time() that this stage finished or None }, 'init-local': { 'errors': [], 'start': , 'end' # (same as 'init' above) }, 'modules-config': { 'errors': [], 'start': , 'end' # (same as 'init' above) }, 'modules-final': { 'errors': [], 'start': , 'end' # (same as 'init' above) }, 'datasource': string describing datasource found or None 'stage': string representing stage that is currently running ('init', 'init-local', 'modules-final', 'modules-config', None) if None, then no stage is running. Reader must read the start/end of each of the above stages to determine the state. } result.json's format is: { 'v1': { 'datasource': string describing the datasource found 'errors': [] # list of errors reported } } Thus, to determine if cloud-init is finished: fin = "/run/cloud-init/result.json" if os.path.exists(fin): ret = json.load(open(fin, "r")) if len(ret['v1']['errors']): print("Finished with errors:" + "\n".join(ret['v1']['errors'])) else: print("Finished no errors") else: print("Not Finished")