Terraform Advanced — Terraform Cloud Runs

Let HashiCorp manage your Terraform CI/CD with Terraform Cloud.

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VCS-Driven Workflow

# Configure backend
terraform {
  cloud {
    organization = "my-org"
    workspaces {
      name = "prod-networking"
    }
  }
}

Push to branch → Terraform Cloud auto-plans
Merge to main  → Plan runs, then wait for manual confirm to apply

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Run Triggers

Chain workspace applies:

networking workspace applies → triggers app workspace plan

Useful for dependency ordering: networking must be applied before app.

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Workspace Variables

Set via UI, CLI, or API:

# Terraform variables
terraform cloud variable set \
  --workspace prod-networking \
  --key vpc_cidr \
  --value "10.0.0.0/16"

# Environment variables (AWS creds)
terraform cloud variable set \
  --workspace prod-networking \
  --key AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID \
  --value "AKIA..." \
  --category env \
  --sensitive

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Comparison

Feature	GitHub Actions	Atlantis	Terraform Cloud
Hosting	GitHub-managed	Self-hosted	HashiCorp-managed
State	Self-managed	Self-managed	Built-in
Cost	Free (public repos)	Free (open source)	Free tier + paid
Policy	OPA/Checkov	OPA/Checkov	Sentinel
Approval	PR reviews	PR comments	UI confirm

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What’s Next?

Practice CI/CD patterns.

← Atlantis Practice Exercises →