Terraform configuration is hard to read and validate in editors
Terraform users report that nested string escaping makes regexes hard to decipher, while template files and embedded expressions lack useful highlighting; one report also asks for linting in VS Code. A related request asks for basic TOML highlighting when third-party extensions are restricted. Current workarounds include building metrics in a UI and importing them, using a partial template language mode, or switching to IntelliJ. Editor tooling can improve readability and feedback, but it cannot change Terraform’s underlying string-escaping rules.
For terraform and infrastructure-as-code developers. Mentioned from Apr 2020 to Jan 2026 on GitHub.
6 different people described this problem in 4 separate discussions.
- Indie fit
- 3.0/10
- Pain
- 4.9/10
- Frequency
- 7.0/10
- Willingness to pay
- 0.0/10
- Momentum
- 5.0/10
- Who pays
- Professionals
- Competition
- High
- Build difficulty
- Medium
What people said
Quoted word for word. Follow a link to read the whole discussion.
Obviously it doesn't specifically handle the surrounding language (e.g. json/yaml) interleaved with the templating syntax, but it's a lot better than having zero syntax highlighting
For searchability I'll also reference the file extension .tftpl here (which is now the recommended extension instead of .tmpl according to https://www.terraform.io/language/functions/templatefile) for which the same feature would be incredibly useful
See what to build and who will buy it
- 2 product ideas with the smallest useful version and pricing
- 4 places to find your first customers
- 5 more quotes from people who have this problem
- Current workarounds, existing solutions and risks