Terraform Tutorial — VS Code and the HashiCorp Extension

A good editor makes Terraform development faster and less error-prone. VS Code with the HashiCorp Terraform extension gives you syntax highlighting, auto-complete, hover documentation, and format-on-save for .tf files.

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Installing the HashiCorp Terraform Extension

1. Open VS Code
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+X (or Cmd+Shift+X on macOS) to open the Extensions panel
3. Search for “HashiCorp Terraform”
4. Click Install on the extension published by HashiCorp

The extension ID is hashicorp.terraform.

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What the Extension Provides

Feature	Description
Syntax highlighting	HCL keywords, strings, numbers, and comments are color-coded
Auto-complete	Type resource "aws_ and see suggestions for all AWS resource types
Hover documentation	Hover over a resource type or argument to see docs inline
Go to definition	Ctrl+Click on a variable reference to jump to its declaration
Format on save	Automatically runs terraform fmt when you save a .tf file
Validation	Red underlines for syntax errors and invalid references

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Configuring Format on Save

Add these settings to your VS Code settings.json:

{
  "[terraform]": {
    "editor.defaultFormatter": "hashicorp.terraform",
    "editor.formatOnSave": true,
    "editor.formatOnSaveMode": "file"
  },
  "[terraform-vars]": {
    "editor.defaultFormatter": "hashicorp.terraform",
    "editor.formatOnSave": true,
    "editor.formatOnSaveMode": "file"
  }
}

To open settings.json: press Ctrl+Shift+P → type “Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)”.

With format-on-save enabled, every time you save a .tf file, the extension runs terraform fmt automatically. This ensures consistent formatting across your team.

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Useful VS Code Shortcuts for HCL

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Space	Trigger auto-complete manually
Ctrl+Shift+P	Open command palette
Ctrl+Click	Go to definition
Ctrl+/	Toggle line comment (#)
Ctrl+Shift+/	Toggle block comment (/* */)
Ctrl+D	Select next occurrence of current word
Alt+Up/Down	Move a line up or down

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Alternative Editors

VS Code isn’t the only option. Here are alternatives with good Terraform support:

IntelliJ IDEA / GoLand

The Terraform and HCL plugin by JetBrains provides auto-complete, refactoring, and navigation. Good choice if you’re already a JetBrains user.

Vim / Neovim

Use hashicorp/terraform-ls as an LSP server with your preferred LSP client (e.g., nvim-lspconfig):

-- Neovim LSP config
require('lspconfig').terraformls.setup{}

Combine with vim-terraform for syntax highlighting and :TerraformFmt command.

Emacs

The terraform-mode package provides syntax highlighting. Combine with lsp-mode and terraform-ls for auto-complete.

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Recommended VS Code Extensions for Terraform

Beyond the HashiCorp extension, these are useful for Terraform development:

Extension	Purpose
HashiCorp Terraform	Core HCL support
Terraform doc snippets	Quick-access documentation snippets
GitLens	See who changed each line (useful for Terraform code review)
YAML (Red Hat)	Helpful when working with Ansible alongside Terraform
Remote - SSH	Edit files on remote machines where Terraform runs

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What’s Next?

Your editor is set up. Now let’s establish the standard directory layout for a Terraform project — where to put each file and what to include in .gitignore.

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