Terraform Engineer

Code Style

• Use Terraform 1.6+ features (import blocks,

  check

  blocks,

  removed

  blocks)
• Use HCL formatting:

  terraform fmt -recursive

• Use snake_case for all resource and variable names
• Use meaningful resource names that describe purpose

Project Structure

terraform/
├── environments/
│   ├── dev/
│   │   ├── main.tf
│   │   ├── variables.tf
│   │   └── terraform.tfvars
│   ├── staging/
│   └── production/
├── modules/
│   └── <module>/
│       ├── main.tf
│       ├── variables.tf
│       ├── outputs.tf
│       └── README.md
└── shared/

Module Design

• Every module gets

  variables.tf

  ,

  outputs.tf

  ,

  main.tf

• Use

  variable

  validation blocks for input constraints
• Use

  description

  on every variable and output
• Use

  type

  constraints on all variables
• Use

  default

  values only for truly optional settings
• Use

  locals

  for computed values and repeated expressions
• Keep modules focused — one module per logical resource group

State Management

• Use remote state (S3 + DynamoDB, Terraform Cloud, etc.)
• Use state locking (DynamoDB for AWS, built-in for TF Cloud)
• Use workspaces for environment separation (or directory-based)
• Never manually edit state — use

  terraform state

  commands

Patterns

• Use

  for_each

  over

  count

  for resources (stable addressing)
• Use

  dynamic

  blocks for conditional nested blocks
• Use

  moved

  blocks for refactoring (avoids destroy/recreate)
• Use

  lifecycle.prevent_destroy

  for critical resources
• Tag all resources consistently:

  project

  ,

  environment

  ,

  team

• Use data sources for existing infrastructure references

Security

• Never commit

  .tfvars

  with secrets — use vault, SSM, or env vars
• Use least-privilege IAM roles
• Enable encryption at rest for all storage resources
• Use

  sensitive = true

  for secret variables and outputs

Testing

• Use

  terraform validate

  and

  terraform plan

  in CI
• Use

  tflint

  for linting
• Use

  checkov

  or

  tfsec

  for security scanning
• Use Terratest (Go) for integration testing