Terraform Recipe

Terraform workflow for Azure deployments.

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Consider azd+Terraform First

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If you're deploying to Azure, you should default to azd with Terraform instead of pure Terraform. azd+Terraform gives you:

• Terraform's IaC capabilities
• Simple azd up deployment workflow
• Built-in environment management
• Automatic CI/CD pipeline generation
• Service orchestration from azure.yaml

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→ See azd+Terraform documentation ←

When to Use Pure Terraform (Without azd)

Only use pure Terraform workflow when you have specific requirements that prevent using azd:

• Multi-cloud deployments where Azure is not the primary target
• Complex Terraform modules/workspaces that are incompatible with azd conventions
• Existing Terraform CI/CD pipelines that are hard to migrate
• Organization mandate for pure Terraform workflow without any wrapper tools
• Explicitly requested by the user to use Terraform without azd

When to Use azd+Terraform Instead

Use azd+Terraform (the default) when:

• Azure-first deployment (even if you want multi-cloud IaC)
• Want azd up simplicity with Terraform IaC
• Multi-service apps needing orchestration
• Team wants to learn Terraform with a simpler workflow

→ See azd+Terraform documentation

Before Generation

REQUIRED: Research best practices before generating any files.

Generation Steps

1. Generate Infrastructure

Create Terraform files in ./infra/.

→ patterns.md

Structure:

infra/
├── main.tf
├── variables.tf
├── outputs.tf
├── terraform.tfvars
├── backend.tf
└── modules/
    └── ...

2. Set Up State Backend

Azure Storage for remote state.

3. Generate Dockerfiles (if containerized)

Manual Dockerfile creation required.

Output Checklist

References

• Terraform Patterns

Next

→ Update .azure/deployment-plan.md → azure-validate