The Terragrunt configuration file uses the same HCL syntax as Terraform itself in terragrunt.hcl.
Terragrunt also supports JSON-serialized HCL in a terragrunt.hcl.json file:
where terragrunt.hcl is mentioned you can always use terragrunt.hcl.json instead.
The following is a reference of all the supported blocks and attributes in the configuration file:
The terraform block is used to configure how Terragrunt will interact with Terraform. This includes specifying where
to find the Terraform configuration files, any extra arguments to pass to the terraform CLI, and any hooks to run
before or after calling Terraform.
The terraform block supports the following arguments:
source (attribute): Specifies where to find Terraform configuration files. This parameter supports the exact same syntax as the
module source parameter for Terraform module blocks, including
local file paths, Git URLs, and Git URLS with ref parameters. Terragrunt will download all the code in the repo
(i.e. the part before the double-slash //) so that relative paths work correctly between modules in that repo.extra_arguments (block): Nested blocks used to specify extra CLI arguments to pass to the terraform CLI. Learn more
about its usage in the Keep your CLI flags DRY use case overview. Supports
the following arguments:
arguments (required) : A list of CLI arguments to pass to terraform.commands (required) : A list of terraform sub commands that the arguments will be passed to.env_vars (optional) : A map of key value pairs to set as environment variables when calling terraform.required_var_files (optional): A list of file paths to terraform vars files (.tfvars) that will be passed in to
terraform as -var-file=<your file>.optional_var_files (optional): A list of file paths to terraform vars files (.tfvars) that will be passed in to
terraform like required_var_files, only any files that do not exist are ignored.before_hook (block): Nested blocks used to specify command hooks that should be run before terraform is called.
Hooks run from the directory with the terraform module, except for hooks related to terragrunt-read-config and
init-from-module. These hooks run in the terragrunt configuration directory (the directory where terragrunt.hcl
lives).
Supports the following arguments:
commands (required) : A list of terraform sub commands for which the hook should run before.execute (required) : A list of command and arguments that should be run as the hook. For example, if execute is set as
["echo", "Foo"], the command echo Foo will be run.run_on_error (optional) : If set to true, this hook will run even if a previous hook hit an error, or in the
case of “after” hooks, if the Terraform command hit an error. Default is false.after_hook (block): Nested blocks used to specify command hooks that should be run after terraform is called.
Hooks run from the terragrunt configuration directory (the directory where terragrunt.hcl lives). Supports the same
arguments as before_hook.In addition to supporting before and after hooks for all terraform commands, the following specialized hooks are also supported:
terragrunt-read-config (after hook only): terragrunt-read-config is a special hook command that you can use with
the after_hook subblock to run an action immediately after terragrunt finishes loading the config. This hook will
run on every invocation of terragrunt. Note that you can only use this hook with after_hooks. Any before_hooks
with the command terragrunt-read-config will be ignored. The working directory for hooks associated with this
command will be the terragrunt config directory.
init-from-module and init: Terragrunt has two stages of initialization: one is to download remote
configurations using go-getter; the other
is Auto-Init, which configures the backend and downloads
provider plugins and modules. If you wish to run a hook when Terragrunt is using go-getter to download remote
configurations, use init-from-module for the command. If you wish to execute a hook when Terragrunt is using
terraform init for Auto-Init, use init for the command. For example, an after_hook for the command
init-from-module will run after terragrunt clones the module, while an after_hook for the command init will run
after terragrunt runs terraform init on the cloned module.
init-from-module and init only run if the requisite stage needs to run. That is, if terragrunt
detects that the module is already cloned in the terragrunt cache, this stage will be skipped and thus the hooks
will not run. Similarly, if terragrunt detects that it does not need to run init in the auto init feature, the
init stage is skipped along with the related hooks.init-from-module will run in the terragrunt config directory,
while the working directory for hooks associated with init will be the terraform module.Example:
terraform {
# Pull the terraform configuration at the github repo "acme/infrastructure-modules", under the subdirectory
# "networking/vpc", using the git tag "v0.0.1".
source = "git::git@github.com:acme/infrastructure-modules.git//networking/vpc?ref=v0.0.1"
# For any terraform commands that use locking, make sure to configure a lock timeout of 20 minutes.
extra_arguments "retry_lock" {
commands = get_terraform_commands_that_need_locking()
arguments = ["-lock-timeout=20m"]
}
# You can also specify multiple extra arguments for each use case. Here we configure terragrunt to always pass in the
# `common.tfvars` var file located by the parent terragrunt config.
extra_arguments "custom_vars" {
commands = [
"apply",
"plan",
"import",
"push",
"refresh"
]
required_var_files = ["${get_parent_terragrunt_dir()}/common.tfvars"]
}
# The following are examples of how to specify hooks
# Before apply or plan, run "echo Foo".
before_hook "before_hook_1" {
commands = ["apply", "plan"]
execute = ["echo", "Foo"]
}
# Before apply, run "echo Bar". Note that blocks are ordered, so this hook will run after the previous hook to
# "echo Foo". In this case, always "echo Bar" even if the previous hook failed.
before_hook "before_hook_2" {
commands = ["apply"]
execute = ["echo", "Bar"]
run_on_error = true
}
# Note that you can use interpolations in subblocks. Here, we configure it so that before apply or plan, print out the
# environment variable "HOME".
before_hook "interpolation_hook_1" {
commands = ["apply", "plan"]
execute = ["echo", get_env("HOME", "HelloWorld")]
run_on_error = false
}
# After running apply or plan, run "echo Baz". This hook is configured so that it will always run, even if the apply
# or plan failed.
after_hook "after_hook_1" {
commands = ["apply", "plan"]
execute = ["echo", "Baz"]
run_on_error = true
}
# A special after hook to always run after the init-from-module step of the Terragrunt pipeline. In this case, we will
# copy the "foo.tf" file located by the parent terragrunt.hcl file to the current working directory.
after_hook "init_from_module" {
commands = ["init-from-module"]
execute = ["cp", "${get_parent_terragrunt_dir()}/foo.tf", "."]
}
# A special after_hook. Use this hook if you wish to run commands immediately after terragrunt finishes loading its
# configurations. If "terragrunt-read-config" is defined as a before_hook, it will be ignored as this config would
# not be loaded before the action is done.
after_hook "terragrunt-read-config" {
commands = ["terragrunt-read-config"]
execute = ["bash", "script/get_aws_credentials.sh"]
}
}
The remote_state block is used to configure how Terragrunt will set up the remote state configuration of your
Terraform code. You can read more about Terragrunt’s remote state functionality in Keep your remote state configuration
DRY use case overview.
The remote_state block supports the following arguments:
backend (attribute): Specifies which remote state backend will be configured. This should be one of the
backend types that Terraform supports.
disable_init (attribute): When true, skip automatic initialization of the backend by Terragrunt. Some backends
have support in Terragrunt to be automatically created if the storage does not exist. Currently s3 and gcs are the
two backends with support for automatic creation. Defaults to false.
disable_dependency_optimization (attribute): When true, disable optimized dependency fetching for terragrunt
modules using this remote_state block. See the documentation for dependency block for more details.
generate (attribute): Configure Terragrunt to automatically generate a .tf file that configures the remote state
backend. This is a map that expects two properties:
path: The path where the generated file should be written. If a relative path, it’ll be relative to the Terragrunt
working dir (where the terraform code lives).if_exists (attribute): What to do if a file already exists at path. Valid values are: overwrite (overwrite the
existing file), overwrite_terragrunt (overwrite the existing file if it was generated by terragrunt; otherwise,
error) skip (skip code generation and leave the existing file as-is), error (exit with an error).config (attribute): An arbitrary map that is used to fill in the backend configuration in Terraform. All the
properties will automatically be included in the Terraform backend block (with a few exceptions: see below). For
example, if you had the following remote_state block:
remote_state {
backend = "s3"
config = {
bucket = "mybucket"
key = "path/to/my/key"
region = "us-east-1"
}
}
This is equivalent to the following terraform code:
terraform {
backend "s3" {
bucket = "mybucket"
key = "path/to/my/key"
region = "us-east-1"
}
}
Note that Terragrunt does special processing of the config attribute for the s3 and gcs remote state backends, and
supports additional keys that are used to configure the automatic initialization feature of Terragrunt.
For the s3 backend, the following additional properties are supported in the config attribute:
region - (Optional) The region of the S3 bucket.profile - (Optional) This is the AWS profile name as set in the shared credentials file.endpoint - (Optional) A custom endpoint for the S3 API.encrypt - (Optional) Whether to enable server side encryption of the state file.role_arn - (Optional) The role to be assumed.shared_credentials_file - (Optional) This is the path to the shared credentials file. If this is not set and a profile is specified, ~/.aws/credentials will be used.external_id - (Optional) The external ID to use when assuming the role.session_name - (Optional) The session name to use when assuming the role.dynamodb_table - (Optional) The name of a DynamoDB table to use for state locking and consistency. The table must have a primary key named LockID. If not present, locking will be disabled.skip_bucket_versioning: When true, the S3 bucket that is created to store the state will not be versioned.skip_bucket_ssencryption: When true, the S3 bucket that is created to store the state will not be configured with server-side encryption.skip_bucket_accesslogging: When true, the S3 bucket that is created to store the state will not be configured with
access logging.skip_bucket_root_access: When true, the S3 bucket that is created will not be configured with bucket policies that allow access to the root AWS user.skip_bucket_enforced_tls: When true, the S3 bucket that is created will not be configured with a bucket policy that enforces access to the bucket via a TLS connection.enable_lock_table_ssencryption: When true, the synchronization lock table in DynamoDB used for remote state concurrent access will not be configured with server side encryption.s3_bucket_tags: A map of key value pairs to associate as tags on the created S3 bucket.dynamodb_table_tags: A map of key value pairs to associate as tags on the created DynamoDB remote state lock table.disable_aws_client_checksums: When true, disable computing and checking checksums on the request and response,
such as the CRC32 check for DynamoDB. This can be used to workaround
https://github.com/gruntwork-io/terragrunt/issues/1059.For the gcs backend, the following additional properties are supported in the config attribute:
skip_bucket_creation: When true, Terragrunt will skip the auto initialization routine for setting up the GCS
bucket for use with remote state.skip_bucket_versioning: When true, the GCS bucket that is created to store the state will not be versioned.enable_bucket_policy_only: When true, the GCS bucket that is created to store the state will be configured to use uniform bucket-level access.project: The GCP project where the bucket will be created.location: The GCP location where the bucket will be created.gcs_bucket_labels: A map of key value pairs to associate as labels on the created GCS bucket.Example with S3:
# Configure terraform state to be stored in S3, in the bucket "my-terraform-state" in us-east-1 under a key that is
# relative to included terragrunt config. For example, if you had the following folder structure:
#
# .
# ├── terragrunt.hcl
# └── child
# └── terragrunt.hcl
#
# And the following is defined in the root terragrunt.hcl config that is included in the child, the state file for the
# child module will be stored at the key "child/terraform.tfstate".
#
# Note that since we are not using any of the skip args, this will automatically create the S3 bucket
# "my-terraform-state" and DynamoDB table "my-lock-table" if it does not already exist.
remote_state {
backend = "s3"
config = {
bucket = "my-terraform-state"
key = "${path_relative_to_include()}/terraform.tfstate"
region = "us-east-1"
encrypt = true
dynamodb_table = "my-lock-table"
}
}
Example with GCS:
# Configure terraform state to be stored in GCS, in the bucket "my-terraform-state" in the "my-terraform" GCP project in
# the eu region under a key that is relative to included terragrunt config. This will also apply the labels
# "owner=terragrunt_test" and "name=terraform_state_storage" to the bucket if it is created by Terragrunt.
#
# For example, if you had the following folder structure:
#
# .
# ├── terragrunt.hcl
# └── child
# └── terragrunt.hcl
#
# And the following is defined in the root terragrunt.hcl config that is included in the child, the state file for the
# child module will be stored at the key "child/terraform.tfstate".
#
# Note that since we are not using any of the skip args, this will automatically create the GCS bucket
# "my-terraform-state" if it does not already exist.
remote_state {
backend = "gcs"
config = {
project = "my-terraform"
location = "eu"
bucket = "my-terraform-state"
prefix = "${path_relative_to_include()}/terraform.tfstate"
gcs_bucket_labels = {
owner = "terragrunt_test"
name = "terraform_state_storage"
}
}
}
The include block is used to specify inheritance of Terragrunt configuration files. The included config (also called
the parent) will be merged with the current configuration (also called the child) before processing. You can learn
more about the inheritance properties of Terragrunt in the Filling in remote state settings with Terragrunt
section of the
“Keep your remote state configuration DRY” use case overview.
The include block supports the following arguments:
path (attribute): Specifies the path to a Terragrunt configuration file (the parent config) that should be merged
with this configuration (the child config).Example:
# If you have the following folder structure, and the following contents for ./child/terragrunt.hcl, this will include
# and merge the items in the terragrunt.hcl file at the root.
#
# .
# ├── terragrunt.hcl
# └── child
# └── terragrunt.hcl
include {
path = find_in_parent_folders()
}
The locals block is used to define aliases for Terragrunt expressions that can be referenced within the configuration.
You can learn more about locals in the feature overview.
The locals block does not have a defined set of arguments that are supported. Instead, all the arguments passed into
locals are available under the reference local.ARG_NAME throughout the Terragrunt configuration.
Example:
# Make the AWS region a reusable variable within the configuration
locals {
aws_region = "us-east-1"
}
inputs = {
region = local.aws_region
name = "${local.aws_region}-bucket"
}
The dependency block is used to configure module dependencies. Each dependency block exports the outputs of the target
module as block attributes you can reference throughout the configuration. You can learn more about dependency blocks
in the Dependencies between modules
section of the
“Execute Terraform commands on multiple modules at once” use case overview.
You can define more than one dependency block. Each label you provide to the block identifies another dependency
that you can reference in your config.
The dependency block supports the following arguments:
name (label): You can define multiple dependency blocks in a single terragrunt config. As such, each block needs a
name to differentiate between the other blocks, which is what the first label of the block is used for. You can
reference the specific dependency output by the name. E.g if you had a block dependency "vpc", you can reference the
outputs of this dependency with the expression dependency.vpc.outputs.config_path (attribute): Path to a Terragrunt module (folder with a terragrunt.hcl file) that should be included
as a dependency in this configuration.skip_outputs (attribute): When true, skip calling terragrunt output when processing this dependency. If
mock_outputs is configured, set outputs to the value of mock_outputs. Otherwise, outputs will be set to an
empty map.mock_outputs (attribute): A map of arbitrary key value pairs to use as the outputs attribute when no outputs are
available from the target module, or if skip_outputs is true.mock_outputs_allowed_terraform_commands (attribute): A list of Terraform commands for which mock_outputs are
allowed. If a command is used where mock_outputs is not allowed, and no outputs are available in the target module,
Terragrunt will throw an error when processing this dependency.Example:
# Run `terragrunt output` on the module at the relative path `../vpc` and expose them under the attribute
# `dependency.vpc.outputs`
dependency "vpc" {
config_path = "../vpc"
# Configure mock outputs for the `validate` command that are returned when there are no outputs available (e.g the
# module hasn't been applied yet.
mock_outputs_allowed_terraform_commands = ["validate"]
mock_outputs = {
vpc_id = "fake-vpc-id"
}
}
# Another dependency, available under the attribute `dependency.rds.outputs`
dependency "rds" {
config_path = "../rds"
}
inputs = {
vpc_id = dependency.vpc.outputs.vpc_id
db_url = dependency.rds.outputs.db_url
}
Can I speed up dependency fetching?
dependency blocks are fetched in parallel at each source level, but will serially parse each recursive dependency. For
example, consider the following chain of dependencies:
account --> vpc --> securitygroup --> ecs
^
/
ecr --
In this chain, the ecr and securitygroup module outputs will be fetched concurrently when applying the ecs module,
but the outputs for account and vpc will be fetched serially as terragrunt needs to recursively walk through the
tree to retrieve the outputs at each level.
This recursive parsing happens due to the necessity to parse the entire terragrunt.hcl configuration (including
dependency blocks) in full before being able to call terraform output.
However, terragrunt includes an optimization to only fetch the lowest level outputs (securitygroup and ecr in this
example) provided that the following conditions are met in the immediate dependencies:
remote_state blocks.disable_dependency_optimization = false, which is the default).remote_state block itself does not depend on any dependency outputs (locals and include are ok).before_hook, after_hook, or extra_arguments to the terraform init call. NOTE:
terragrunt will not automatically detect this and you will need to explicitly opt out of the dependency optimization
flag.If these conditions are met, terragrunt will only parse out the remote_state blocks and use that to pull down the
state for the target module without parsing the dependency blocks, avoiding the recursive dependency retrieval.
The dependencies block is used to enumerate all the Terragrunt modules that need to be applied in order for this
module to be able to apply. Note that this is purely for ordering the operations when using xxx-all commands of
Terraform. This does not expose or pull in the outputs like dependency blocks.
The dependencies block supports the following arguments:
paths (attribute): A list of paths to modules that should be marked as a dependency.Example:
# When applying this terragrunt config in an `xxx-all` command, make sure the modules at "../vpc" and "../rds" are
# handled first.
dependencies {
paths = ["../vpc", "../rds"]
}
The generate block can be used to arbitrarily generate a file in the terragrunt working directory (where terraform
is called). This can be used to generate common terraform configurations that are shared across multiple terraform
modules. For example, you can use generate to generate the provider blocks in a consistent fashion by defining a
generate block in the parent terragrunt config.
The generate block supports the following arguments:
name (label): You can define multiple generate blocks in a single terragrunt config. As such, each block needs a
name to differentiate between the other blocks.path (attribute): The path where the generated file should be written. If a relative path, it’ll be relative to the
Terragrunt working dir (where the terraform code lives).if_exists (attribute): What to do if a file already exists at path. Valid values are: overwrite (overwrite the
existing file), overwrite_terragrunt (overwrite the existing file if it was generated by terragrunt; otherwise,
error) skip (skip code generation and leave the existing file as-is), error (exit with an error).comment_prefix (attribute): A prefix that can be used to indicate comments in the generated file. This is used by
terragrunt to write out a signature for knowing which files were generated by terragrunt. Defaults to # . Optional.disable_signature (attribute): When true, disables including a signature in the generated file. This means that
there will be no difference between overwrite_terragrunt and overwrite for the if_exists setting. Defaults to
false. Optional.contents (attribute): The contents of the generated file.Example:
# When using this terragrunt config, terragrunt will generate the file "provider.tf" with the aws provider block before
# calling to terraform. Note that this will overwrite the `provider.tf` file if it already exists.
generate "provider" {
path = "provider.tf"
if_exists = "overwrite"
contents = <<EOF
provider "aws" {
region = "us-east-1"
version = "= 2.3.1"
allowed_account_ids = ["1234567890"]
}
EOF
}
The inputs attribute is a map that is used to specify the input variables and their values to pass in to Terraform.
Each entry of the map will be passed to Terraform using the environment variable
mechanism. This means that each input
will be set using the form TF_VAR_variablename, with the value in json encoded format.
Note that because the values are being passed in with environment variables and json, the type information is lost
when crossing the boundary between Terragrunt and Terraform. You must specify the proper type
constraint on the variable in Terraform in
order for Terraform to process the inputs to the right type.
Example:
inputs = {
string = "string"
number = 42
bool = true
list_string = ["a", "b", "c"]
list_number = [1, 2, 3]
list_bool = [true, false]
map_string = {
foo = "bar"
}
map_number = {
foo = 42
bar = 12345
}
map_bool = {
foo = true
bar = false
baz = true
}
object = {
str = "string"
num = 42
list = [1, 2, 3]
map = {
foo = "bar"
}
}
from_env = get_env("FROM_ENV", "default")
}
The terragrunt download_dir string option can be used to override the default download directory.
The precedence is as follows: --terragrunt-download-dir command line option → TERRAGRUNT_DOWNLOAD env variable →
download_dir attribute of the terragrunt.hcl file in the module directory → download_dir attribute of the included
terragrunt.hcl.
It supports all terragrunt functions, i.e. path_relative_from_include().
Terragrunt prevent_destroy boolean flag allows you to protect selected Terraform module. It will prevent destroy or
destroy-all command to actually destroy resources of the protected module. This is useful for modules you want to
carefully protect, such as a database, or a module that provides auth.
Example:
terraform {
source = "git::git@github.com:foo/modules.git//app?ref=v0.0.3"
}
prevent_destroy = true
The terragrunt skip boolean flag can be used to protect modules you don’t want any changes to or just to skip modules
that don’t define any infrastructure by themselves. When set to true, all terragrunt commands will skip the selected
module.
Consider the following file structure:
root
├── terragrunt.hcl
├── prod
│ └── terragrunt.hcl
├── dev
│ └── terragrunt.hcl
└── qa
└── terragrunt.hcl
In some cases, the root level terragrunt.hcl file is solely used to DRY up your Terraform configuration by being
included in the other terragrunt.hcl files. In this case, you do not want the xxx-all commands to process the root
level terragrunt.hcl since it does not define any infrastructure by itself. To make the xxx-all commands skip the
root level terragrunt.hcl file, you can set skip = true:
skip = true
The skip flag must be set explicitly in terragrunt modules that should be skipped. If you set skip = true in a
terragrunt.hcl file that is included by another terragrunt.hcl file, only the terragrunt.hcl file that explicitly
set skip = true will be skipped.
The iam_role attribute can be used to specify an IAM role that Terragrunt should assume prior to invoking Terraform.
The precedence is as follows: --terragrunt-iam-role command line option → TERRAGRUNT_IAM_ROLE env variable →
iam_role attribute of the terragrunt.hcl file in the module directory → iam_role attribute of the included
terragrunt.hcl.
Example:
iam_role = "arn:aws:iam::ACCOUNT_ID:role/ROLE_NAME"
The terragrunt terraform_binary string option can be used to override the default terraform binary path (which is
terraform).
The precedence is as follows: --terragrunt-tfpath command line option → TERRAGRUNT_TFPATH env variable →
terragrunt.hcl in the module directory → included terragrunt.hcl
The terragrunt terraform_version_constraint string overrides the default minimum supported version of terraform.
Terragrunt only officially supports the latest version of terraform, however in some cases an old terraform is needed.
Example:
terraform_version_constraint = ">= 0.11"
The terragrunt terragrunt_version_constraint string can be used to specify which versions of the Terragrunt CLI can be used with your configuration. If the running version of Terragrunt doesn’t match the constraints specified, Terragrunt will produce an error and exit without taking any further actions.
Example:
terragrunt_version_constraint = ">= 0.23"
Install
