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Command: show

The terraform show command is used to provide human-readable output from a state or plan file. This can be used to inspect a plan to ensure that the planned operations are expected, or to inspect the current state.

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Usage

terraform show [options] [path]
Reads and outputs a Terraform state or plan file in a human-readable form. If no path is specified, the current state will be shown.

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Options

  • -no-color - If specified, output won’t contain any color.
  • -json - If specified, output the Terraform plan or state in a machine-readable JSON format.

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JSON Output Format

When the -json flag is used, the output is in a JSON format that is designed to be stable across Terraform versions. The JSON output contains the same information that the human-readable output does, but in a structured format that is easier for machines to parse.

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Examples

Show the current state: 
terraform show
Show a saved plan: 
terraform show tfplan
Show the current state in JSON format: 
terraform show -json
Show a saved plan in JSON format: 
terraform show -json tfplan

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Output with No Path

When you run terraform show with no path argument, Terraform will display the state from the currently-selected workspace. If there is no state, the command will display an error.

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Output for a Plan File

When you run terraform show with the path to a plan file (created with terraform plan -out=FILE), Terraform will display:
  • The configuration snapshot used for the plan
  • The resource changes that the plan proposes
  • The output value changes that the plan proposes
This is useful for reviewing a plan file before applying it with terraform apply FILE.

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Output for a State File

When you run terraform show with the path to a state file, Terraform will display the contents of that state file. This is useful when reviewing a state file that is not the current state of the selected workspace.

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