Plan and apply workflow

terraform plan creates an execution plan that previews changes: it reads the current state of existing remote objects to bring state up to date, compares the configuration to the prior state, and proposes the change actions needed to make remote objects match, without carrying them out. If nothing needs to change, plan reports that no actions need to be taken. Running plan without -out creates a speculative plan for review; the -out=FILE option saves a plan you later pass to terraform apply, a two-step workflow intended for automation. Running terraform apply without a saved plan automatically generates a new plan and prompts for approval; -auto-approve skips the prompt, and HashiCorp recommends it only when you ensure nobody can change infrastructure outside the Terraform workflow. Applying a saved plan file skips prompting and accepts no additional planning modes or options; inspect it first with terraform show. Always re-check the final non-speculative plan before applying, because interim changes to the target system can make the result differ from what an earlier speculative plan indicated. Scope: Terraform. Reviewed October 4, 2026.