How can I use the automation API to handle when one stack depends on outputs from another stack? Right now I'm using

StackReference

but it only ties the stacks together with a string value (the name of the stack). I'd like to do this with an object reference so I can run a single command to bring up multiple stacks all in the correct order. Is something like this possible?

Yep. Just await the first up, then run the 2nd up. You can use inline programs to make it clearer, but both methods work.

Here's an example of a go program that splits up a deployment across two stacks with automation api: https://github.com/pulumi/automation-api-examples/blob/main/go/multi_stack_orchestration/main.go

great! thanks guys!