CLI Configuration - CDK Terrain - CDK Terrain (CDKTN)

The CDK Terrain (CDKTN) CLI allows you to initialize a new CDKTN project, adjust project settings, synthesize your infrastructure into Terraform configuration files, deploy your CDKTN application, and more. You can also use some Terraform CLI commands like terraform apply and terraform destroy directly, but we recommend using the available cdktn cli commands where possible.

CDKTN works with both Terraform and OpenTofu. To use OpenTofu, set the TERRAFORM_BINARY_NAME=tofu environment variable. Refer to Environment Variables for details.

Install

$ npm install -g cdktn-cli

Use

$ cdktn --help

Help output:

Commands:
  cdktn init [OPTIONS]                Create a new cdktn project from a template.
  cdktn get [OPTIONS]                 Generate CDK Constructs for Terraform providers and modules.
  cdktn convert [OPTIONS]             Converts a single file of HCL configuration to CDK Terrain. Takes the file to be converted on stdin.
  cdktn deploy [OPTIONS] <stacks..>   Deploy the given stacks                                                                                                                                    [aliases: apply]
  cdktn destroy [OPTIONS] <stacks..>  Destroy the given stacks
  cdktn diff [stack] [OPTIONS]        Perform a diff (terraform plan) for the given stack                                                                                                         [aliases: plan]
  cdktn list [OPTIONS]                List stacks in app.
  cdktn login                         Retrieves an API token to connect to Terraform Cloud.
  cdktn synth [stack] [OPTIONS]       Synthesizes Terraform code for the given app in a directory.                                                                                          [aliases: synthesize]
  cdktn watch [stack] [OPTIONS]       [experimental] Watch for file changes and automatically trigger a deploy
  cdktn output [stack] [OPTIONS]      Prints the output of a stack
  cdktn debug                         Get debug information about the current project and environment
  cdktn provider                      A set of subcommands that facilitates provider management                                                                                                                             [aliases: outputs]
  cdktn completion                    generate completion script

Options:
  --version                   Show version number                                                                                                                                                                  [boolean]
  --disable-plugin-cache-env  Don't set TF_PLUGIN_CACHE_DIR automatically. This is useful when the plugin cache is configured differently. Supported using the env CDKTF_DISABLE_PLUGIN_CACHE_ENV. [boolean] [default: false]
  --log-level                 Which log level should be written. Only supported via setting the env CDKTF_LOG_LEVEL                                                                                                 [string]
  -h, --help                  Show help                                                                                                                                                                            [boolean]

Options can be specified via environment variables with the "CDKTF_" prefix (e.g. "CDKTF_OUTPUT")

CI Environment

If you are running the CLI in an automated environment, you can force the dynamic CLI output rendering to be static by setting the CI environment variable to true.

Configuration File

You can configure the behavior of the Terraform CDK CLI by modifying the cdktf.json file in your project root directory. Refer to the cdktf.json documentation for more detail on how you can supply custom configuration settings for your application. You can also declare the Terraform and OpenTofu versions your project targets and optionally have diff, deploy, and destroy verify the installed binary against them; see Declare Target Runtimes.

Telemetry

The CDKTN CLI (cdktn-cli interacts with a HashiCorp service called Checkpoint to report project metrics such as cdktn version, project language, provider name, platform name, and other details that help guide the project maintainers with feature and roadmap decisions. The code that interacts with Checkpoint is part of the CDK Terrain CLI. The use of Checkpoint is completely optional. Refer to the telemetry documentation for more information about Checkpoint and you can disable it if desired.

​Install

​Use

​CI Environment

​Configuration File

​Telemetry

Install

Use

CI Environment

Configuration File

Telemetry