Terraform

Terraform is an open-source tool that enables developers and operations teams to define, manage, and provision cloud resources and infrastructure components with code as opposed to manual configuration through a cloud provider's UI.

With it, you manage infrastructure resources, such as virtual machines, networks, and storage, in a declarative and automated manner. The replacement of manual configuration with codified templates ensures consistent and reproducible infrastructure setups.

tip

For more information about Terraform, refer to the official documentation.

IntelliJ IDEA provides the following features:

• Syntax highlighting

  You can customize color settings in the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S) , on the Editor | Color Scheme | HCL and Editor | Color Scheme | HashiCorp Interpolation Language pages.

• Code formatting

  You can access code style settings related to Terraform in the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S) on the Editor | Code Style | Terraform page.

• Inspections

  You can detect duplicate, conflicting, deprecated, or missing elements, unresolved references, and more.

  

  You can check all Terraform inspections in the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S) under Editor | Inspections | Terraform.

• Code completion

  This includes completion for known providers, resources, data sources, and arguments.

  

• Code navigation

  Select a module or a variable and press Ctrl0B to navigate to its usages.

  

• Refactorings

  To rename the element and all its usages, press ShiftF6.

• Structure view

  Use the Structure tool window to quickly preview and navigate Terraform files.

  

  The tool window is available in View | Tool Windows | Structure or by pressing Alt07.

• Quick documentation

  Hover over an argument to get quick documentation for it.

  

  The window that pops up contains a link to Terraform Registry for more details. You can also open this link by pressing ShiftF1.

Coding assistance also includes brace matching CtrlShift0M, code folding CtrlNumPad +/CtrlNumPad -, adding line comments Ctrl0/ and block comments CtrlShift0/.

Run Terraform

The Terraform and HCL plugin provides dedicated run configurations for Terraform. These run configurations allow you to customize the execution of terraform commands, such as adding arguments or passing environment variables.

Run Terraform using gutter icon

1. In a Terraform file, click in the gutter.

2. In the window that opens, select either Plan to create an execution plan or Apply if you already have a Terraform plan and want to apply it.

   

If the Terraform initialization step was not performed for this directory, there will be a warning sign in the Run gutter icon. In this case, IntelliJ IDEA suggests you running the terraform init command before running terraform plan or terraform apply.

Running Terraform from the gutter icon creates a temporary run configuration. You can save it as a permanent one by clicking in the run widget and selecting Save Configuration.

Create Terraform run configuration manually

1. Go to Run | Edit Configurations. Alternatively, press AltShiftF10, then 00.

2. Click the Add New Configuration button () and start typing Terraform.

   

3. Select a type of the run configuration:

   • Terraform Plan to run terraform plan commands

   • Terraform Apply to run terraform apply commands

   • Terraform, which lets you provide any other Terraform command

4. Give the run configuration a name and, if necessary, change the working directory and provide environment variables.

Terraform template files

IntelliJ IDEA provides support for Terraform template files that typically use the .tftpl extension. Support for template files includes coding assistance (syntax highlighting, inspections, and more), navigation to template files, and live templates.

To use live templates, start typing if or for in a Terraform template file.

Navigate to template file

In a Terraform file, you can use the templatefile function to inject a template. With IntelliJ IDEA, you can quickly navigate to the template file from your Terraform file.

1. In your Terraform file, locate the templatefile function.

2. Place the caret at the template file name and press Ctrl0B.

Select template data language

By default, template files are recognized as plain text. You can change it to another supported programming language if you want the file syntax to be recognized accordingly.

1. Right-click the file tab in the editor and select Change Plain text template data language to.

   Alternatively, press AltEnter (Show Context Actions) and select Choose template data language.

2. In the list of languages that opens, select the language.