Terraform Skill for Claude

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name: terraform-skill description: Use when working with Terraform or OpenTofu - creating modules, writing tests (native test framework, Terratest), setting up CI/CD pipelines, reviewing configurations, choosing between testing approaches, debugging state issues, implementing security scanning (trivy, checkov), or making infrastructure-as-code architecture decisions license: Apache-2.0 metadata: author: Anton Babenko version: 1.6.0

Terraform Skill for Claude

Comprehensive Terraform and OpenTofu guidance covering testing, modules, CI/CD, and production patterns. Based on terraform-best-practices.com and enterprise experience.

When to Use This Skill

**Activate this skill when:**

• Creating new Terraform or OpenTofu configurations or modules
• Setting up testing infrastructure for IaC code
• Deciding between testing approaches (validate, plan, frameworks)
• Structuring multi-environment deployments
• Implementing CI/CD for infrastructure-as-code
• Reviewing or refactoring existing Terraform/OpenTofu projects
• Choosing between module patterns or state management approaches

**Don't use this skill for:**

• Basic Terraform/OpenTofu syntax questions (Claude knows this)
• Provider-specific API reference (link to docs instead)
• Cloud platform questions unrelated to Terraform/OpenTofu

Core Principles

1. Code Structure Philosophy

**Module Hierarchy:**

Type	When to Use	Scope
Resource Module	Single logical group of connected resources	VPC + subnets, Security group + rules
Infrastructure Module	Collection of resource modules for a purpose	Multiple resource modules in one region/account
Composition	Complete infrastructure	Spans multiple regions/accounts

**Hierarchy:** Resource → Resource Module → Infrastructure Module → Composition

**Directory Structure:**

environments/        # Environment-specific configurations
├── prod/
├── staging/
└── dev/

modules/            # Reusable modules
├── networking/
├── compute/
└── data/

examples/           # Module usage examples (also serve as tests)
├── complete/
└── minimal/

**Key principle from terraform-best-practices.com:**

• Separate environments (prod, staging) from modules (reusable components)
• Use examples/ as both documentation and integration test fixtures
• Keep modules small and focused (single responsibility)

**For detailed module architecture, see:** [Code Patterns: Module Types & Hierarchy](references/code-patterns.md)

2. Naming Conventions

**Resources:**

# Good: Descriptive, contextual
resource "aws_instance" "web_server" { }
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "application_logs" { }

# Good: "this" for singleton resources (only one of that type)
resource "aws_vpc" "this" { }
resource "aws_security_group" "this" { }

# Avoid: Generic names for non-singletons
resource "aws_instance" "main" { }
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "bucket" { }

**Singleton Resources:**

Use `"this"