Command: console

The terraform console command creates an interactive console for using interpolations.

Usage

Usage: terraform console [options] [dir]

This opens an interactive console for experimenting with interpolations. This is useful for testing interpolations before using them in configurations as well as interacting with an existing state.

If a state file doesn't exist, the console still works and can be used to experiment with supported interpolation functions. Try entering some basic math such as 1 + 5 to see.

The dir argument can be used to open a console for a specific Terraform configuration directory. This will load any state from that directory as well as the configuration. This defaults to the current working directory. The console command does not require Terraform state or configuration to function.

The command-line flags are all optional. The list of available flags are:

• -state=path - Path to the state file. Defaults to terraform.tfstate. A state file doesn't need to exist.

You can close the console with the exit command or by using Control-C or Control-D.

Scripting

The terraform console command can be used in non-interactive scripts by piping newline-separated commands to it. Only the output from the final command is outputted unless an error occurs earlier.

An example is shown below:

$ echo "1 + 5" | terraform console
6

Remote State

The terraform console command will read configured state even if it is remote. This is great for scripting state reading in CI environments or other remote scenarios.

After configuring remote state, run a terraform remote pull command to sync state locally. The terraform console command will use this state for operations.

Because the console currently isn't able to modify state in any way, this is a one way operation and you don't need to worry about remote state conflicts in any way.