The terraform.applying symbol

You can use the terraform.applying symbol in your configuration to determine if Terraform is currently running an apply operation.

Terraform automatically sets terraform.applying to true when you run an apply operation, and false during any other operation. The planning mode you run terraform apply in does not affect terraform.applying, meaning that even in destroy mode, terraform.applying is still true.

You can use terraform.applying to change Terraform behavior during apply operations. In the following example, Terraform uses your read-only credentials when running a plan operation but uses your write credentials when you run an apply operation:

locals {
  aws_read_role_arn  = "arn:aws:iam::XXXXX:role/terraform-read"
  aws_write_role_arn = "arn:aws:iam::XXXXX:role/terraform-full"

  role_arn = terraform.applying ? local.aws_write_role_arn : local.aws_read_role_arn
}

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-west-2"

  assume_role {
    role_arn     = local.role_arn
  }
}

The terraform.applying symbol is an ephemeral value and is only available during Terraform operations. Terraform does not write ephemeral values to plan or state files. Additionally, you can only reference terraform.applying in the following ephemeral contexts:

• In a write-only argument
• In ephemeral variables
• In local values
• In ephemeral resources
• In ephemeral outputs
• Configuring providers in the provider block
• In a provisioner and provisioner connection configuration. Refer to Use a provisioner for more information.