Choosing and Configuring an Engine
Terrateam supports multiple execution engines, giving you the flexibility to choose the right tool for your workflow. Whether you are using standard Terraform, OpenTofu, Terragrunt, CDKTF, or even a fully custom engine, Terrateam makes it possible to configure plan and apply behavior that suits your needs.
You can define the engine globally or override it per workflow by using the engine
key in your .terrateam/config.yml
file.
Built In Engine Types
Terraform (default)
engine: name: terraform
OpenTofu
engine: name: tofu version: '1.9.0'
Terragrunt
engine: name: terragrunt tf_version: '1.11.1'
CDKTF
engine: name: cdktf tf_cmd: tofu
Pulumi
engine: name: pulumi
Custom Engine
Use a custom engine when you need to perform tasks outside of standard Terraform or OpenTofu workflows, or when integrating with other infrastructure tools (e.g., custom wrappers, or legacy systems).
Example: Custom Engine
Below is an example configuration for a custom engine. Each key corresponds to a step in the Terrateam workflow. All steps are optional - define only what you need.
engine: name: custom # The command to run during the init step (optional) init: ['echo', 'init'] # The command to run during the plan step (optional) plan: ['my-custom-plan'] # The command to produce a human-readable diff of the plan output (optional) diff: ['printf', '+ added foo\n- removed bar\n~ updated bar\n'] # The command to run during the apply step (optional) apply: ['my-custom-apply'] # The command to return output values as a JSON string (optional) outputs: ['echo', '{"foo": "bar"}']
Highlights:
- All steps (
init
,plan
,diff
,apply
,outputs
) are optional - Define only the steps that make sense for your use case
$TERRATEAM_PLAN_FILE
environment variable is available to pass data from plan to apply- Use this pattern to integrate with any tool or custom process
How It Works
Each key corresponds to a step in the Terrateam workflow:
init
The command to run during the init step. Optional.plan
The command to run during the plan step. Optional.diff
The command to produce a human-readable diff of the plan output. Optional.apply
The command to run during the apply step. Optional.outputs
The command to return output values as a JSON string. Optional.
All steps are optional - you can define any combination of steps that makes sense for your use case.
Per Workflow Engines
If you have different workflows (for example, dev and prod), you can override the engine configuration per workflow. Just nest the engine
block inside a workflow definition.
workflows: - tag_query: "development" engine: name: tofu - tag_query: "production" engine: name: terraform
Best Practices
- Use per-workflow engine configurations to maximize flexibility.
- Use
tf_version
andtf_cmd
to control which Terraform compatible CLI is invoked. - For custom engines, test locally with the same environment variables Terrateam uses (especially
TERRATEAM_PLAN_FILE
).