Terraform Command & Syntax Cheat Sheet

Core Workflow Commands

terraform init: Initialize the working directory, download provider plugins, and configure backends.
terraform validate: Validate the configuration files in a directory to ensure they are syntactically valid and internally consistent.
terraform plan: Create an execution plan showing what changes Terraform will make to your infrastructure.
terraform apply: Execute the actions proposed in a Terraform plan.
terraform destroy: Destroy all remote objects managed by a particular Terraform configuration.

terraform fmt: Rewrites Terraform configuration files to a canonical format and style.
terraform fmt -check: Checks if files are formatted correctly (useful in CI pipelines).

terraform state list: List resources managed by Terraform in the current state.
terraform state show <resource>: Show details of a specific resource in the state.
terraform state rm <resource>: Remove a resource from the Terraform state without destroying it.

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1"
}

resource "aws_instance" "web" {
  ami           = "ami-12345"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"
}

data "aws_ami" "ubuntu" {
  most_recent = true
  owners      = ["099720109477"]
}

variable "region" {
  type        = string
  description = "The AWS region to deploy to"
  default     = "us-west-2"
}

output "instance_ip" {
  value = aws_instance.web.public_ip
}