Skip to main content

​
Synopsis

Check whether the configuration is valid

​
Description

The terraform validate command validates the configuration files in a directory, referring only to the configuration and not accessing any remote services such as remote state, provider APIs, etc. Validate runs checks that verify whether a configuration is syntactically valid and internally consistent, regardless of any provided variables or existing state. It is thus primarily useful for general verification of reusable modules, including correctness of attribute names and value types. This command is safe to run automatically, for example as a post-save check in a text editor or as a test step for a reusable module in a CI system. Important: Validation requires an initialized working directory with any referenced plugins and modules installed. To initialize a working directory for validation without accessing any configured remote backend, use: 
terraform init -backend=false
To verify configuration in the context of a particular run (a particular target workspace, input variable values, etc), use the terraform plan command instead, which includes an implied validation check.

​
Usage

terraform validate [options] [dir]

​
Arguments

​
dir
string
default:"."
The directory containing the Terraform configuration to validate. Defaults to the current directory.

​
Options

​
-json
boolean
default:"false"
Produce output in a machine-readable JSON format, suitable for use in text editor integrations and other automated systems. Always disables color.
​
-no-color
boolean
default:"false"
If specified, output won’t contain any color.
​
-no-tests
boolean
default:"false"
If specified, Terraform will not validate test files.
​
-test-directory
string
default:"tests"
Set the Terraform test directory, defaults to “tests”.
​
-query
boolean
default:"false"
If specified, the command will also validate .tfquery.hcl files.

​
Examples

​
Basic Validation

Validate configuration in the current directory: 
$ terraform validate
Success! The configuration is valid.

​
Validation with Errors

Example output when configuration has errors: 
$ terraform validate

Error: Unsupported block type

  on main.tf line 5, in resource "aws_instance" "example":
   5:   invalid_block {

Blocks of type "invalid_block" are not expected here.

​
JSON Output

Validate with JSON output for tooling integration: 
$ terraform validate -json
{
  "format_version": "1.0",
  "valid": true,
  "error_count": 0,
  "warning_count": 0,
  "diagnostics": []
}
Example JSON output with errors: 
$ terraform validate -json
{
  "format_version": "1.0",
  "valid": false,
  "error_count": 1,
  "warning_count": 0,
  "diagnostics": [
    {
      "severity": "error",
      "summary": "Unsupported block type",
      "detail": "Blocks of type \"invalid_block\" are not expected here.",
      "range": {
        "filename": "main.tf",
        "start": {
          "line": 5,
          "column": 3,
          "byte": 102
        },
        "end": {
          "line": 5,
          "column": 17,
          "byte": 116
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

​
Validate Specific Directory

Validate configuration in a specific directory: 
$ terraform validate ./modules/vpc
Success! The configuration is valid.

​
Exclude Test Files

Validate without checking test files: 
$ terraform validate -no-tests
Success! The configuration is valid.

​
Exit Codes

  • 0 - Success, configuration is valid
  • 1 - Error occurred, configuration is invalid

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us