Terraform is a tool from HashiCorp for managing infrastructure safely and efficiently. zsh-terraform focuses on the part Terraform intentionally leaves to your shell: getting to the right command quickly, with completion that matches the Terraform executable on your machine.

Instead of shipping a static list of commands that ages every time Terraform changes, zsh-terraform asks terraform -help for the available commands and options, then turns that output into ZSH completion on demand. The result is a completion layer that follows your installed Terraform version, works across version switches, and avoids making every shell startup pay the full discovery cost.

If you move between Terraform projects, versions, and workspaces all day, this keeps the repetitive shell work small. Convenience aliases shorten the common commands, generated completion keeps flags aligned with your Terraform version, and cached command metadata makes later completions fast without overwriting completion files that can still be reused.

Features

• Native ZSH autocompletion generated from Terraform's own help output
• Per-command completion caching under ${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/zsh/terraform_completion
• Version-aware cache entries, so switching Terraform versions does not overwrite generated completion files that can be kept and reused
• Convenience aliases for high-frequency commands such as init, plan, apply, destroy, workspace, state, and validate
• Composable alias patterns, so commands like tfip (init then plan) and tfia (init then apply) are easier to recall and faster to type
• Dynamic completion for values Terraform knows at runtime, including state addresses and workspace names

Requirements

• Terraform

Installation

• Antigen
• Oh My Zsh
• Manual

Antigen

1. Add the following to your .zshrc:

   antigen bundle macunha1/zsh-terraform
   

2. Start a new terminal session.

Oh My Zsh

1. Clone this repository into $ZSH_CUSTOM/plugins (by default ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins)

   git clone https://github.com/macunha1/zsh-terraform \
       ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/terraform
   

2. Add the plugin to the list of plugins for Oh My Zsh to load (inside ~/.zshrc):

   plugins=(terraform)
   

3. Start a new terminal session.

Manual (Git Clone)

1. Clone this repository somewhere on your machine. This guide will assume ~/.zsh/zsh-terraform.

   git clone https://github.com/macunha1/zsh-terraform ~/.zsh/zsh-terraform
   

2. Add the following to your .zshrc:

   source ~/.zsh/zsh-terraform/terraform.zsh
   

3. Start a new terminal session.

Details

Convenience aliases

The plugin adds short aliases for the Terraform commands that tend to sit in the tightest feedback loop. tf maps to terraform, while focused aliases cover common operations without making you retype or recall the full command shape each time.

Alias	Command
tfi	tf init
tfp	tf plan
tfa	tf apply
tfd	tf destroy
tfw	tf workspace
tfst	tf state
tfv	tf validate

Some aliases are intentionally composed from lower-level aliases. For example, tfip runs tfi followed by tfp, and tfia runs tfi followed by tfa. That keeps repeated workflows fast and keeps customization predictable: if you override a lower-level alias such as tfi, the composed aliases follow it too.

e.g.:

alias tfi='tf init -no-color -reconfigure'

Will also be applied to composed tfip, tfia, and tfid, and also their -auto-approve equivalents: tfia! and tfid!

Completion cache

The plugin generates native ZSH completion metadata from Terraform's own help output instead of maintaining a static command map in this repository. Completion metadata is cached per Terraform version, executable path, and command branch:

${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/zsh/terraform_completion/
└── <terraform_version>/
    └── native-<terraform_binary_path>/
        ├── <subcommand-A>.zsh
        ├── <subcommand-B>.zsh
        ├── <subcommand-1>-<subcommand-N>.zsh
        └── root.zsh

Generated files are kept by Terraform version and executable path, so switching Terraform versions creates or reuses the relevant cache entries instead of overwriting completion files for other versions. Once a branch cache file exists, later completions source it and do not rewrite it.

Cache files are loaded lazily when Terraform completion is invoked, so opening a new shell does not run Terraform or scan completion cache directories. The first completion in a shell loads the relevant branch cache into zsh memory; missing branch files are generated on demand and then reused by later completions and later shells.

While a branch is being loaded or generated, the plugin reports the current operation through ZLE so the shell does not appear frozen. These messages can be disabled with:

zstyle ':zsh-terraform:completion' messages no

The checked-in _terraform file is a generator and dispatcher. It reads command and subcommand help to cache command labels and flag labels, and still asks Terraform for dynamic values such as state addresses and workspace names when needed.