Spacelift
Infrastructure-as-Code CI/CD for Terraform
Terragrunt
Scale Terraform and OpenTofu workflows with flexible orchestration
Terragrunt extends Terraform/OpenTofu, providing reusable configurations, dependency management, and environment handling to simplify large‑scale infrastructure automation across multiple clouds and teams.
Overview
Who Should Use Terragrunt
Terragrunt is aimed at DevOps engineers, platform teams, and developers who manage complex Terraform/OpenTofu codebases across multiple environments or clouds. It helps teams enforce DRY principles, reduce duplication, and maintain a clear dependency order when provisioning resources.
Core Capabilities
Terragrunt wraps Terraform/OpenTofu commands, adding a lightweight configuration layer written in HCL. It automatically sources remote state backends, injects environment‑specific variables, and builds a dependency graph so modules run in the correct sequence. The tool can be installed via a single binary and integrated into CI/CD pipelines, local development shells, or containerized workflows.
Deploying at Scale
By storing common settings in a terragrunt.hcl hierarchy, organizations can version‑control infrastructure once and apply it consistently across staging, production, and feature environments. Terragrunt’s built‑in locking prevents concurrent state corruption, and its modular approach simplifies onboarding new team members while keeping the underlying Terraform code untouched.
Highlights
Reusable Terraform modules with DRY configurations
Built‑in dependency graph for ordered execution
Automatic remote state handling and locking
Environment‑specific variables and backend configuration
Pros
- Reduces configuration duplication
- Manages cross‑module dependencies automatically
- Simplifies remote state configuration
- Works with existing Terraform/OpenTofu code without modification
Considerations
- Adds an extra abstraction layer to learn
- Debugging can be harder due to wrapper
- Limited to Terraform/OpenTofu ecosystem
- May require custom scripts for very unique workflows
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Fit guide
Great for
- Teams managing multi‑environment Terraform projects
- Organizations needing consistent remote state handling
- CI/CD pipelines that orchestrate complex module graphs
- Developers seeking DRY infrastructure code
Not ideal when
- Simple single‑module Terraform setups
- Users preferring pure Terraform without wrappers
- Projects that require non‑Terraform IaC tools
- Environments where adding another binary is restricted
How teams use it
Standardize environments across dev, staging, prod
Deploy identical infrastructure with environment‑specific variables using a shared terragrunt.hcl hierarchy.
Orchestrate dependent services
Automatically apply database module before application servers, ensuring correct creation order.
Integrate with CI/CD
Run terragrunt plan/apply in pipelines, leveraging built‑in state locking to avoid race conditions.
Migrate legacy Terraform code
Wrap existing modules with terragrunt to introduce DRY configs without rewriting resources.
Tech snapshot
Go73%
MDX14%
TypeScript8%
Astro3%
HCL2%
JavaScript1%
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to rewrite my Terraform code to use Terragrunt?
No, Terragrunt works as a thin wrapper and can be pointed at existing .tf files.
How does Terragrunt handle remote state?
It can generate backend blocks automatically and supports locking via supported backends like S3 with DynamoDB.
Is Terragrunt compatible with OpenTofu?
Yes, Terragrunt operates on any Terraform‑compatible CLI, including OpenTofu.
Can I use Terragrunt in Docker CI environments?
The binary can be added to any container image, and commands run the same as locally.
Where can I get commercial support?
Gruntwork offers paid support plans listed on the Terragrunt website.
Project at a glance
Active- Stars
- 9,212
- Watchers
- 9,212
- Forks
- 1,134
LicenseMIT
Repo age9 years old
Last commit18 hours ago
Primary languageGo
Last synced 12 hours ago