Infrastructure as CodeIntermediatev1.x

Learn Terraform

Describe your infrastructure, then let a plan tell you the truth

From your first resource to a module structure that survives a second environment — including the state management decisions that are painful to change later.

Start with chapter 1 Official docs

Chapters: 7
Total time: ~120 min
Level: Intermediate

The curriculum

Written to be read in order. Each chapter assumes the one before it.

What Terraform is forInfrastructure as code, declarative state, and the plan step that makes Terraform worth learning. Start with why clicking in a cloud console does not scale.4 min read
Installing Terraform and wiring up credentialsInstall the CLI, authenticate to a cloud provider without putting keys in your code, and verify the whole chain works before you write a single resource.3 min read
State, resources and the dependency graphThe five concepts Terraform is built from — providers, resources, state, variables and modules — plus the dependency graph that decides the order everything happens in.4 min read
Your first infrastructure, built properlyBuild a real static website on AWS — bucket, policy, CloudFront — structured the way a project should be from the start, with variables, outputs and remote state.3 min read
The Terraform workflow that scalesThe commands you will run daily, how to structure multiple environments without copy-paste, and what a sane CI pipeline for infrastructure looks like.4 min read
The mistakes that destroy databasesTerraform mistakes are more expensive than most, because the plan you did not read deletes production. Here are the ones that actually happen, and how to make them impossible.4 min read
When Terraform is stuckLocked state, resources that already exist, cycles in the graph, and plans that will not converge. What each error actually means and the safe way out.4 min read

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One email a month when a new guide ships. Nothing else.