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Terraform Cheatsheet

· 2 min read
Carlos Angulo Mascarell
Carlos Angulo Mascarell
Senior Platform Engineer

This post explains how to set up a shortcut for Terraform in the terminal and the Terraform commands I use the most.

Create an alias for TF in your Terminal​

Add an alias to your shell profile so you can type tf instead of terraform:

New-Alias -Name tf -Value terraform -Force

👉 See my full Terraform shortcuts (with tffmt, tfa, tfd) in Terraform Shortcuts.

TF Commands​

Command
tf init
tf fmt --recursive
tf plan -out plan.out
tf apply -auto-approve
tf destroy -auto-approve
tf state ls
tf state rm ADDR
tf import -var-file=[FILENAME].tfvars ADDR ID

Examples​

TF IMPORT​

terraform [global options] import [options] ADDR ID -> Is the resource path as RESOURCE_TYPE.RESOURCE_NAME. Examples:

aws_resourcegroups_group.main
aws_organizations_organizational_unit.apps["journalbot"] -> Resources created without foreach.
module.app_envs["temp-app-envs"].aws_organizations_organizational_unit.envs["prd"] -> Resources created **with foreach**.

Using the ADDR in tf import:

tf import -var-file=base.tfvars RESOURCE_TYPE.RESOURCE_NAME ID_OR_ARN # Resources created without foreach.
tf import -var-file=base.tfvars 'RESOURCE_TYPE.RESOURCE_NAME[\"RESOURCE_KEY\"]' ID_OR_ARN #  Resources created **with foreach**. Please note the `''` for the resource path.
mklink link_name.tf original_file_path.tf # execute it in command prompt as admin

References​

About me​

I'm a Senior Platform Engineer. I build and evolve Internal Developer Platforms — golden paths, self-service tooling, and paved roads spanning AWS governance, CI/CD standardization, and developer enablement — so engineering teams ship faster, safer, and more autonomously, with less cognitive load. My core stack is AWS, Terraform, and GitHub Actions, and I'm an AWS Certified Solutions Architect. I care deeply about paved roads, productivity, and documenting implementations so knowledge scales with the team (yes, I'm an engineer who likes to document 🧑‍💻).

You can check my experience here.

Personal Blog - cangulo.github.io GitHub - Carlos Angulo Mascarell - cangulo
LinkedIn - Carlos Angulo Mascarell

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