CLI Configuration

Note: CDK for Terraform is currently in beta.

The CDK for Terraform (CDKTF) CLI allows you to initialize a new CDKTF project, adjust project settings, synthesize your infrastructure into Terraform configuration files, deploy your CDKTF application, and more. You can also use some Terraform CLI commands like terraform apply and terraform destroy directly, but we recommend using the available cdktf cli commands where possible.

Install

$ npm install -g cdktf-cli

Use

$ cdktf --help

Help output:

Commands:
  cdktf convert [OPTIONS]          Converts a single file of HCL configuration to Terraform CDK. Takes the file to be converted on stdin.
  cdktf deploy [stack] [OPTIONS]   Deploy the given stack                                                                                                                                                   [aliases: apply]
  cdktf destroy [stack] [OPTIONS]  Destroy the given stack
  cdktf diff [stack] [OPTIONS]     Perform a diff (terraform plan) for the given stack                                                                                                                       [aliases: plan]
  cdktf get [OPTIONS]              Generate CDK Constructs for Terraform providers and modules.
  cdktf init [OPTIONS]             Create a new cdktf project from a template.
  cdktf list [OPTIONS]             List stacks in app.
  cdktf login                      Retrieves an API token to connect to Terraform Cloud.
  cdktf synth [stack] [OPTIONS]    Synthesizes Terraform code for the given app in a directory.                                                                                                        [aliases: synthesize]
  cdktf watch [stack] [OPTIONS]    [experimental] Watch for file changes and automatically trigger a deploy
  cdktf output [stack] [OPTIONS]   Prints the output of a stack                                                                                                                                             [aliases: outputs]
  cdktf completion                 generate completion script
 
Options:
  --version                   Show version number                                                                                                                                                                  [boolean]
  --disable-logging           Dont write log files. Supported using the env CDKTF_DISABLE_LOGGING.                                                                                                 [boolean] [default: true]
  --disable-plugin-cache-env  Dont set TF_PLUGIN_CACHE_DIR automatically. This is useful when the plugin cache is configured differently. Supported using the env CDKTF_DISABLE_PLUGIN_CACHE_ENV. [boolean] [default: false]
  --log-level                 Which log level should be written. Only supported via setting the env CDKTF_LOG_LEVEL                                                                                                 [string]
  -h, --help                  Show help                                                                                                                                                                            [boolean]
 
Options can be specified via environment variables with the "CDKTF_" prefix (e.g. "CDKTF_OUTPUT")

CI Environment

If you are running the CLI in an automated environment, you can force the dynamic CLI output rendering to be static by setting the CI environment variable to true.

Configuration File

You can configure the behavior of the Terraform CDK CLI by modifying the cdktf.json file in your project root directory. Refer to the cdktf.json documentation for more detail on how you can supply custom configuration settings for your application.

Telemetry

The CDKTF CLI (cdktf-cli interacts with a HashiCorp service called Checkpoint to report project metrics such as cdktf version, project language, provider name, platform name, and other details that help guide the project maintainers with feature and roadmap decisions. The code that interacts with Checkpoint is part of the CDK for Terraform CLI.

The use of Checkpoint is completely optional. Refer to the telemetry documentation for more information about Checkpoint and you can disable it if desired.