terraform-lsp

Terraform LSP Plugin for Claude Code

A Claude Code plugin that integrates terraform-ls (HashiCorp's official Terraform language server) for code intelligence, diagnostics, and completions in Terraform files.

How This Differs from the Terraform MCP Plugin

The official Terraform MCP plugin by HashiCorp provides automation capabilities — running plans, managing state, and interacting with the Terraform ecosystem.

This plugin is complementary. It provides language intelligence while you edit — diagnostics, completions, hover documentation, and code navigation for .tf and .tfvars files. Both plugins can be installed together.

	Terraform MCP Plugin	Terraform LSP Plugin (this)
Type	MCP server	LSP integration
Provides	Plan/apply automation, state management	Diagnostics, completions, hover docs
When it helps	Running and managing infrastructure	Writing and editing Terraform code

Supported File Types

Extension	Language ID
.tf	terraform
.tfvars	terraform-vars

Prerequisites

Important: terraform-ls must be installed and on your PATH before using this plugin. Without it, the language server will fail to start and you will not receive diagnostics or completions for Terraform files. Claude Code does not install language servers automatically.

Install terraform-ls on your system.

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install hashicorp/tap/terraform-ls

Linux

Download the latest release from HashiCorp Releases and place the binary on your PATH.

Windows

Download from HashiCorp Releases and add to your PATH.

Verify Installation

terraform-ls -v

Install Plugin

Once the plugin is listed in a marketplace, install with:

claude plugin install terraform-lsp

For local development, use the --plugin-dir flag:

claude --plugin-dir /path/to/claude-terraform-lsp-plugin

Usage

Once installed, Claude Code starts the terraform-ls language server when it encounters .tf or .tfvars files. The language server provides:

• Diagnostics — syntax errors, missing references, validation
• Completions — resource types, attribute names, built-in functions
• Hover — documentation for resources and attributes

Examples

Catching errors immediately after edits

Ask Claude to add an aws_security_group resource to a .tf file. After writing the file, terraform-ls publishes diagnostics — for instance, flagging a reference to a VPC that doesn't exist in the configuration, or a syntax error in an HCL expression. Claude sees the diagnostic immediately and corrects the issue without needing to run terraform validate or terraform plan.

Writing accurate Terraform with provider-aware completions and hover

Ask Claude to create an RDS database instance. With the plugin enabled, terraform-ls provides completions for valid aws_db_instance attributes and hover documentation for each one. Claude uses this to write correct HCL with the right attribute names and types, rather than relying solely on training data that may be outdated for newer provider versions.

Navigating a large Terraform codebase with go-to-definition

In a multi-file Terraform project, ask Claude to refactor a module or update a variable used across several files. The plugin provides go-to-definition and find-references, so Claude can trace where var.environment is declared, where it's used, and what resources depend on it — making the refactor accurate across the entire codebase.

Troubleshooting

Language server not starting

Verify terraform-ls is installed and on your PATH:

which terraform-ls && terraform-ls -v

If the command is not found, follow the Prerequisites section above.

Limited completions or missing provider attributes

• Run terraform init in your workspace — terraform-ls uses the provider schemas from .terraform/ to power completions and attribute validation. Without it, you'll get basic syntax support but not full code intelligence.

License

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE.