/terraform-style-guide

name: terraform-style-guide
description: Generate Terraform HCL code following HashiCorp's official style conventions and best practices. Use when writing, reviewing, or generating Terraform configurations.
metadata:
  lifecycle-status: active

Terraform Style Guide

Generate and maintain Terraform code following HashiCorp's official style conventions and best practices.

**Reference:** [HashiCorp Terraform Style Guide](https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/language/style)

Code Generation Strategy

When generating Terraform code:

1. Start with provider configuration and version constraints 2. Create data sources before dependent resources 3. Build resources in dependency order 4. Add outputs for key resource attributes 5. Use variables for all configurable values

File Organization

| File | Purpose | |------|---------| | `terraform.tf` | Terraform and provider version requirements | | `providers.tf` | Provider configurations | | `main.tf` | Primary resources and data sources | | `variables.tf` | Input variable declarations (alphabetical) | | `outputs.tf` | Output value declarations (alphabetical) | | `locals.tf` | Local value declarations |

Example Structure

# terraform.tf
terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.14"

  required_providers {
    aws = {
      source  = "hashicorp/aws"
      version = "~> 6.0"
    }
  }
}

# variables.tf
variable "environment" {
  description = "Target deployment environment"
  type        = string

  validation {
    condition     = contains(["dev", "staging", "prod"], var.environment)
    error_message = "Environment must be dev, staging, or prod."
  }
}

# locals.tf
locals {
  common_tags = {
    Environment = var.environment
    ManagedBy   = "Terraform"
  }
}

# main.tf
resource "aws_vpc" "main" {
  cidr_block           = var.vpc_cidr
  enable_dns_hostnames = true

  tags = merge(local.common_tags, {
    Name = "${var.project_name}-${var.environment}-vpc"
  })
}

# outputs.tf
output "vpc_id" {
  description = "ID of the created VPC"
  value       = aws_vpc.main.id
}

Code Formatting

Indentation and Alignment

• Use **two spaces** per nesting level (no tabs)
• Align equals signs for consecutive arguments

resource "aws_instance" "web" {
  ami           = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"
  subnet_id     = "subnet-12345678"

  tags = {
    Name        = "web-server"
    Environment = "production"
  }
}

Block Organization

Arguments precede blocks, with meta-arguments first:

resource "aws_instance" "example" {
  # Meta-arguments
  count = 3

  # Arguments
  ami           = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"

  # Blocks
  root_block_device {
    volume_size = 20
  }

  # Lifecycle last
  lifecycle {
    create_before_destroy = true
  }
}

Naming Conventions

• Use **lowercase with underscores** for all names
• Use **descriptive nouns** excluding the resource type
• Be specific and meaningful
• Resource names must be singular, not plural
• Default to `main` for resources where a specific descriptive name is redundant or unavailable, provided only one instance exists

# Bad
resource "aws_instance" "webAPI-aws-instance" {}
resource "aws_instance" "web_apis" {}
variable "name" {}

# Good
resource "aws_instance" "web_api" {}
resource "aws_vpc" "main" {}
variable "application_name" {}

Variables

Every variable must include `type` and `description`:

variable "instance_type" {
  description = "EC2 instance type for the web server"
  type        = string
  default     = "t2.micro"

  validation {
    condition     = contains(["t2.micro", "t2.small", "t2.medium"], var.instance_type)
    error_message = "Instance type must be t2.micro, t2.small, or t2.medium."
  }
}

variable "database_password" {
  description = "Password for the database admin user"
  type        = string
  sensitive   = true
}

Outputs

Every output must include `description`:

output "instance_id" {
  description = "ID of the EC2 instance"
  value       = aws_instance.web.id
}

output "database_password" {
  description = "Database administrator password"
  value       = aws_db_instance.main.password
  sensitive   = true
}

Dynamic Resource Creation

Prefer for_each over count

# Bad - count for multiple resources
resource "aws_instance" "web" {
  count = var.instance_count
  tags  = { Name = "web-${count.index}" }
}

# Good - for_each with named instances
variable "instance_names" {
  type    = set(string)
  default = ["web-1", "web-2", "web-3"]
}

resource "aws_instance" "web" {
  for_each = var.instance_names
  tags     = { Name = each.key }
}

count for Conditional Creation

resource "aws_cloudwatch_metric_alarm" "cpu" {
  count = var.enable_monitoring ? 1 : 0

  alarm_name = "high-cpu-usage"
  threshold  = 80
}

Security Best Practices

Refer to SECURITY.md. It includes guidance on encrypting resources, preventing sensitive data in state, and secure configurations.

Version Pinning

terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.14"

  required_providers {
    aws = {
      source  = "hashicorp/aws"
      version = "~> 6.0"
    }
  }
}

Use the latest major version of each provider and the latest minor version of Terraform, unless otherwise constrained by a dependency lock file or by other modules used by the configuration.

**Version constraint operators:**

• `= 1.0.0` - Exact version
• `>= 1.0.0` - Greater than or equal
• `~> 1.0` - Allow rightmost component to increment
• `>= 1.0, < 2.0` - Version range

Provider Configuration

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-west-2"

  default_tags {
    tags = {
      ManagedBy = "Terraform"
      Project   = var.project_name
    }
  }
}

# Aliased provider for multi-region
provider "aws" {
  alias  = "east"
  region = "us-east-1"
}

Version Control

**Never commit:**

• `terraform.tfstate`, `terraform.tfstate.backup`
• `.terraform/` directory