My initial motivation here was to update the example output from
Terraform's top-level help list to match recent updates in the layout
and language used.
However, while here I took the opportunity to update some dated language
that was not consistent with our modern documentation writing style,
in particular including a totally unnecessary and potentially-alienating
claim that Terraform is "very easy to use". Our modern writing style
discourages this sort of "boastful" language and encourages us to focus on
the facts at hand.
Terraform is controlled via a very easy to use command-line interface (CLI). Terraform is only a single command-line application: terraform. This application then takes a subcommand such as "apply" or "plan". The complete list of subcommands is in the navigation to the left.
Main usage information for the Terraform CLI tool.
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# Terraform Commands (CLI)
> **Hands-on:** Try the [Terraform: Get Started](https://learn.hashicorp.com/collections/terraform/aws-get-started?utm_source=WEBSITE&utm_medium=WEB_IO&utm_offer=ARTICLE_PAGE&utm_content=DOCS) collection on HashiCorp Learn.
Terraform is controlled via a very easy to use command-line interface (CLI).
Terraform is only a single command-line application: terraform. This application
then takes a subcommand such as "apply" or "plan". The complete list of subcommands
is in the navigation to the left.
The command line interface to Terraform is via the `terraform` command, which
accepts a variety of subcommands such as `terraform init` or `terraform plan`.
A full list of all of the supported subcommands is in the navigation section
of this page.
The terraform CLI is a well-behaved command line application. In erroneous cases,
a non-zero exit status will be returned. It also responds to -h and --help as you'd
most likely expect.
We refer to the `terraform` command line tool as "Terraform CLI" elsewhere
in the documentation. This terminology is often used to distinguish it from
other components you might use in the Terraform product family, such as
[Terraform Cloud](/docs/cloud/) or
the various [Terraform providers](/docs/providers/), which are developed and
released separately from Terraform CLI.
To view a list of the available commands at any time, just run terraform with no arguments:
To view a list of the commands available in your current Terraform version,