---

name: setting-up-terraform description: Set up Terraform infrastructure-as-code for cloud resources, including provider configuration, modules, state management, and CI integration.

Setup Terraform

Use this skill when the user asks to set up Terraform, infrastructure as code, cloud provisioning, or IaC.

Steps

1. Initialize the project structure

   infra/
   ├── main.tf
   ├── variables.tf
   ├── outputs.tf
   ├── terraform.tfvars      # (gitignored)
   ├── providers.tf
   └── modules/
   

2. Configure the provider — in providers.tf:

   terraform {
     required_version = ">= 1.5"
     required_providers {
       aws = {
         source  = "hashicorp/aws"
         version = "~> 5.0"
       }
     }
     backend "s3" {
       bucket = "my-terraform-state"
       key    = "prod/terraform.tfstate"
       region = "us-east-1"
     }
   }
   
   provider "aws" {
     region = var.aws_region
   }
   

   Adapt the provider for the user's cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure).

3. Define variables — in variables.tf, define inputs with types, descriptions, and defaults:

   variable "aws_region" {
     type        = string
     default     = "us-east-1"
     description = "AWS region for resources"
   }
   
   variable "environment" {
     type        = string
     description = "Deployment environment (dev, staging, prod)"
   }
   

4. Create resources — in main.tf, define the infrastructure the user needs (VPC, RDS, ECS, S3, Lambda, etc.). Extract reusable patterns into modules under modules/.

5. Configure remote state — use an S3 bucket (AWS), GCS bucket (GCP), or Azure Storage for state. Enable state locking with DynamoDB (AWS).

6. Add to .gitignore

   *.tfstate
   *.tfstate.*
   .terraform/
   terraform.tfvars
   *.tfvars
   

7. Add CI pipeline — create a GitHub Actions workflow that runs terraform fmt -check, terraform validate, and terraform plan on PRs, with terraform apply on merge to main (with approval gate).

Notes

• Never commit state files or .tfvars with secrets.
• Use workspaces or separate state files for dev/staging/prod.
• Pin provider versions to avoid breaking changes.
• Run terraform fmt before committing.