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Terraform

Infrastructure as code for any cloud or service

Homepage Repository
Cloud & Services Development linuxmacoswindows Go BUSL-1.1

Description

Terraform is an infrastructure-as-code tool by HashiCorp that lets you define cloud and on-premises resources in declarative configuration files. It supports hundreds of providers (AWS, GCP, Azure, Cloudflare, and more) and manages the full lifecycle of infrastructure — provisioning, updating, and destroying resources with a consistent workflow.

Install

homebrewbrew install terraform

AI Summary

Infrastructure-as-code tool. Define cloud resources in declarative HCL files, preview changes with plan, and apply them idempotently. Supports AWS, GCP, Azure, and hundreds of other providers.

Capabilities

  • + Define infrastructure in declarative HCL configuration files
  • + Plan changes before applying to show what will be created, modified, or destroyed
  • + Provision and manage resources across AWS, GCP, Azure, and 3000+ providers
  • + Track infrastructure state for reliable updates and drift detection
  • + Create reusable modules for common infrastructure patterns
  • + Import existing infrastructure into Terraform management
  • + Generate dependency graphs of infrastructure resources

Use When

  • → Managing cloud infrastructure declaratively across any provider
  • → Need reproducible, version-controlled infrastructure
  • → Provisioning multi-cloud or hybrid environments
  • → Want to preview infrastructure changes before applying them
  • → Building reusable infrastructure modules for teams

Avoid When

  • x Quick one-off resource creation (use cloud provider CLI directly)
  • x Application deployment without infrastructure changes (use CI/CD tools)
  • x Need real-time imperative commands against cloud APIs (use aws-cli, gcloud, az)

Usage Patterns

Initialize and apply infrastructure

terraform init && terraform plan -out=tfplan && terraform apply tfplan

Downloads providers, previews changes, and applies the saved plan

Destroy all resources

terraform destroy -auto-approve

Tears down all resources managed by the current configuration

Import an existing resource

terraform import aws_instance.web i-1234567890abcdef0

Brings an existing AWS instance under Terraform management

Format configuration files

terraform fmt -recursive

Reformats all .tf files in the directory tree to canonical style

Input / Output

stdin: Not typically used
stdout: Plan output, apply progress, and resource state information
Exit codes:
0 Success (or no changes in plan)
1 Error
2 Plan succeeded with changes (when using -detailed-exitcode)

Typical Pipelines

terraform plan -out=tfplan && terraform show -json tfplan | jq '.resource_changes[] | {action: .change.actions, address}'
terraform state list | fzf | xargs terraform state show
terraform output -json | jq -r '.db_endpoint.value'

Related Tools

aws-cli complementary

aws-cli for imperative AWS commands, Terraform for declarative infrastructure
gcloud complementary

gcloud for imperative GCP commands, Terraform for declarative infrastructure
az complementary

az for imperative Azure commands, Terraform for declarative infrastructure
ansible complementary

Terraform provisions infrastructure, Ansible configures it
View AGENTS.md for Terraform