terraform-console

Open the interactive console

$ terraform console

$ terraform console -plan

$ echo '[expression]' | terraform console

$ terraform console -var-file=[path/to/vars.tfvars]

terraform console [options]

terraform console provides an interactive REPL (Read-Eval-Print Loop) for evaluating Terraform expressions. It allows testing expressions and interpolations, inspecting current state values, experimenting with built-in functions like split(), lower(), length(), and debugging configurations interactively.
The console is read-only and does not modify state, configuration files, or infrastructure resources. However, it locks the state file while running, preventing concurrent plan or apply operations.
Fields, outputs, variables, and locals from the current Terraform state can be accessed directly. Type exit or press Ctrl-C / Ctrl-D to quit.

-plan

Generate an execution plan first and evaluate expressions against the planned state rather than the current state. Shows values Terraform expects after the plan is applied

Path to a local state file to evaluate expressions against (legacy, local backend only)

Set a variable value on the command line

Load variable definitions from a file

The console locks the state file while running, so you cannot run terraform plan or terraform apply in the same workspace concurrently. You must run terraform init before using the console. Resources that have not been created yet show as unknown unless you use the -plan flag. The special type() function is only available within the console (since Terraform v1.1). You cannot define new variables interactively.

Introduced in Terraform v0.8 in November 2016 by Mitchell Hashimoto, co-founder of HashiCorp. Originally described as an interactive console for experimenting with interpolations. Support for -var and -var-file was added later via a fix in September 2019. The type() function was added in Terraform v1.1 as a console-only feature.

terraform(1), terraform-plan(1), terraform-apply(1), terraform-login(1)