Initializing and Migrating

After configuring Terraform Cloud settings for a working directory, you must run terraform init to finish setting up. If the working directory has no existing Terraform state, you can start using Terraform with Terraform Cloud right away. Refer to CLI-driven run workflow for more details.

When you run terraform init in the following scenarios, Terraform will ask you to choose whether or not to migrate state from any existing workspaces.

1. Migrating from local state or state backends: If the working directory already has state data in one or more workspaces, Terraform will ask if you would like to migrate that state to new Terraform Cloud workspaces.

2. Migrating from the remote backend: If the working directory was already connected to Terraform Cloud with the remote backend, Terraform can continue using the same Terraform Cloud workspaces. You will need to switch the remote backend block to the cloud block.

Migrating from Local State or State Backends

Hands On: Try the Migrate State to Terraform Cloud tutorial on HashiCorp Learn.

If the working directory already has state data available (using either local state or a state backend), Terraform will ask your approval to migrate that state to Terraform Cloud. You will need permission to manage workspaces in the destination Terraform Cloud organization. This process is interactive and self-documenting, and resembles moving between state backends.

Terraform may also prompt you to rename your workspaces during the migration, to either give a name to the unnamed default workspace (Terraform Cloud requires all workspaces to have a name) or give your workspace names more contextual information. Unlike Terraform CLI-only workspaces, which represent multiple environments associated with the same configuration (e.g. production, staging, development), Terraform Cloud workspaces can represent totally independent configurations, and must have unique names within the Terraform Cloud organization.

Because of this, Terraform will prompt you to rename the working directory's workspaces according to a pattern relative to their existing names. This can indicate the fact that these specific workspaces share configuration. A typical strategy is <COMPONENT>-<ENVIRONMENT>-<REGION> (e.g., networking-prod-us-east, networking-staging-us-east). Refer to Workspace Naming in the Terraform Cloud documentation for more detail.

Migrating from the remote Backend

If the working directory was already connected to Terraform Cloud with the remote backend, Terraform can continue using the same Terraform Cloud workspaces. The local names shown for those workspaces will change to match their remote names.

The remote backend was the primary implementation of Terraform Cloud's CLI-driven run workflow for Terraform versions 0.11.13 through 1.0.x. We recommend using the native cloud integration for Terraform versions 1.1 or later, as it provides an improved user experience and various enhancements.

Block Replacement

When switching from the remote backend to a cloud block, Terraform will continue using the same set of Terraform Cloud workspaces. Replace your backend "remote" block with an equivalent cloud block.

Single Workspace

If you were using a single workspace with the name argument, change the block label to cloud.

terraform {
-  backend "remote" {
+  cloud {
    organization = "my-org"

    workspaces {
    name = "my-app-prod"
    }
   }
 }

Multiple Workspaces

If you were using multiple workspaces with the prefix argument, replace it with a cloud block that uses the tags argument. You may specify any number of tags to distinguish the workspaces for your working directory, but a good starting point may be to use whatever the prefix was before.

The tags you configure do not need to be present on the existing workspaces. When you initialize, Terraform will add the specified tags to the workspaces if necessary.

terraform {
-  backend "remote" {
+  cloud {
     organization = "my-org"

    workspaces {
-      prefix = "my-app-"
+      tags = ["app:mine"]
    }
   }
 }