Your First Terraform Project · Software Academy

Prepare your workstation

Install the Terraform CLI using the instructions for your OS in the official installation guide. Then check:

terraform version
mkdir terraform-first-lab
cd terraform-first-lab

These lessons use Terraform 1.11 or newer within the 1.x series as a baseline. Specific provider versions and features still need compatibility checks. This is a minimum for the examples, not a claim about the newest release.

Create main.tf

terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.11, < 2.0"

  required_providers {
    local = {
      source  = "hashicorp/local"
      version = "~> 2.5"
    }
  }
}

resource "local_file" "welcome" {
  filename = "${path.module}/welcome.txt"
  content  = "Hello from Terraform!\n"
}

output "file_path" {
  value = local_file.welcome.filename
}

local_file is a provider resource type. welcome is the name within this configuration. Together they form the address local_file.welcome. The output returns the created file's path.

Initialize and preview

terraform init
terraform fmt
terraform validate
terraform plan -out=first.tfplan

init installs the provider and initializes the backend. fmt formats the source. validate checks configuration consistency; it does not prove credentials work or that an API will accept a change. plan shows the proposed infrastructure changes.

Expect a plan to add one resource. Read its filename and content before continuing.

terraform apply first.tfplan
cat welcome.txt
terraform output file_path
terraform state list

Expected file content: Hello from Terraform!. Applying a saved plan executes that approved plan without a second interactive confirmation. Treat plan files as sensitive artifacts.

Change and repeat

Change content to "Hello, infrastructure as code!\n", create a new plan, inspect it, and apply it. Provider behavior determines whether a change updates or replaces a resource; inspect the symbols rather than assuming.

Run terraform plan again. With no external changes, you should see No changes. Delete welcome.txt manually and run plan again: Terraform detects the missing file and proposes creating it.

Clean up

terraform plan -destroy -out=cleanup.tfplan
terraform apply cleanup.tfplan

The file disappears; the source files remain. Cleanup applies only to resources in this root module's current state.

What belongs in Git?

Commit .tf files and .terraform.lock.hcl. Do not commit the downloaded .terraform/ directory, state, secret variable files, or saved plans.

.terraform/
*.tfstate
*.tfstate.*
*.tfplan
crash.log
secrets.tfvars

Practice: add a second local_file with a different filename. Predict the plan before running it. Keep this lab separate from later AWS configurations.