terraform-init

Initialize the current directory

$ terraform init

$ terraform init -upgrade

$ terraform init -backend-config=[path/to/config.hcl]

$ terraform init -backend=false

$ terraform init -migrate-state

$ terraform init -from-module=[source]

terraform init [options]

terraform init initializes a working directory containing Terraform configuration files. This is the first command to run after writing a new configuration or cloning an existing one from version control. It is safe to run multiple times and will not delete existing configuration or state.
The command performs several initialization steps: it configures the backend for storing state, downloads and installs provider plugins declared in the configuration, and downloads child modules referenced in the configuration. Each of these steps can be individually controlled with flags.

-upgrade

Upgrade modules and plugins to the latest allowed versions.

Enable or disable backend configuration. Default is true.

Provide backend configuration via file path or key=value pair. Can be specified multiple times.

Reconfigure the backend, ignoring any saved configuration. Prevents state migration.

Attempt to copy existing state to the new backend with interactive prompts.

Suppress migration prompts and automatically copy state.

Copy a module into the target directory before initialization.

Download child modules. Default is true.

Force plugin installation to read plugins only from the specified directory.

Set lockfile mode. Use readonly to verify checksums without updating the lockfile.

Enable or disable interactive prompts. Default is true.

Lock state files during operations. Default is true.

Duration to retry acquiring a state lock. Default is 0s.

Disable color codes in the output.

Enable machine-readable JSON output.

When changing backends, you must choose between -reconfigure (discard old state) and -migrate-state (copy state to new backend). Running init without either flag when the backend has changed will produce an error. The -plugin-dir option disables the default plugin download behavior, so the directory must contain all required providers.

Terraform was created by Mitchell Hashimoto and released by HashiCorp in 2014. The init command was introduced to manage the growing complexity of provider plugins and module dependencies. Provider plugin management was significantly reworked in Terraform 0.13 (2020) with the introduction of the dependency lock file and the public Terraform Registry as the default plugin source.

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