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Strict Controls

Terragrunt supports operating in a mode referred to as “Strict Mode”.

Strict Mode is a set of controls that can be enabled to ensure that your Terragrunt usage is future-proof by making deprecated features throw errors instead of warnings. This can be useful when you want to ensure that your Terragrunt code is up-to-date with the latest conventions to avoid breaking changes in future versions of Terragrunt.

Whenever possible, Terragrunt will initially provide you with a warning when you use a deprecated feature, without throwing an error. However, in Strict Mode, these warnings will be converted to errors, which will cause the Terragrunt command to fail.

A good practice for using strict controls is to enable Strict Mode in your CI/CD pipelines for lower environments to catch any deprecated features early on. This allows you to fix them before they become a problem in production in a future Terragrunt release.

If you are unsure about the impact of enabling strict controls, you can enable them for specific controls to gradually increase your confidence in the future compatibility of your Terragrunt usage.

Controlling Strict Mode

The simplest way to enable strict mode is to set the strict-mode flag.

This will enable strict mode for all Terragrunt commands, for all strict mode controls.

Terminal window
$ terragrunt plan-all
15:26:08.585 WARN   The `plan-all` command is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Use `terragrunt run --all plan` instead.
Terminal window
$ terragrunt --strict-mode plan-all
15:26:23.685 ERROR  The `plan-all` command is no longer supported. Use `terragrunt run --all plan` instead.

You can also use the environment variable, which can be more useful in CI/CD pipelines:

Terminal window
$ TG_STRICT_MODE='true' terragrunt plan-all
15:26:23.685 ERROR  The `plan-all` command is no longer supported. Use `terragrunt run --all plan` instead.

Instead of enabling strict mode like this, you can also enable specific strict controls by setting the strict-control flag to a value that’s specific to a particular strict control. This can allow you to gradually increase your confidence in the future compatibility of your Terragrunt usage.

Terminal window
$ terragrunt plan-all --strict-control apply-all
15:26:08.585 WARN   The `plan-all` command is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Use `terragrunt run --all plan` instead.
Terminal window
$ terragrunt plan-all --strict-control plan-all
15:26:23.685 ERROR  The `plan-all` command is no longer supported. Use `terragrunt run --all plan` instead.

Again, you can also use the environment variable, which might be more useful in CI/CD pipelines:

Terminal window
$ TG_STRICT_CONTROL='plan-all' terragrunt plan-all
15:26:23.685 ERROR  The `plan-all` command is no longer supported. Use `terragrunt run --all plan` instead.

You can enable multiple strict controls at once:

Terminal window
$ terragrunt plan-all --strict-control plan-all --strict-control apply-all
15:26:23.685 ERROR  The `plan-all` command is no longer supported. Use `terragrunt run --all plan` instead.
15:26:46.521 ERROR  Unable to determine underlying exit code, so Terragrunt will exit with error code 1
Terminal window
$ terragrunt apply-all --strict-control plan-all --strict-control apply-all
15:26:46.564 ERROR  The `apply-all` command is no longer supported. Use `terragrunt run --all apply` instead.
15:26:46.564 ERROR  Unable to determine underlying exit code, so Terragrunt will exit with error code 1

You can also enable multiple strict controls at once when using the environment variable by using a comma-delimited list.

Terminal window
$ TG_STRICT_CONTROL='plan-all,apply-all' bash -c 'terragrunt plan-all; terragrunt apply-all'
15:26:46.521 ERROR  The `plan-all` command is no longer supported. Use `terragrunt run --all plan` instead.
15:26:46.521 ERROR  Unable to determine underlying exit code, so Terragrunt will exit with error code 1
15:26:46.564 ERROR  The `apply-all` command is no longer supported. Use `terragrunt run --all apply` instead.
15:26:46.564 ERROR  Unable to determine underlying exit code, so Terragrunt will exit with error code 1

You can also use control categories to enable certain categories of strict controls.

Terminal window
$ terragrunt plan-all --strict-control deprecated-commands
15:26:23.685 ERROR  The `plan-all` command is no longer supported. Use `terragrunt run-all plan` instead.

Strict Mode Controls

The following strict mode controls are available:

spin-up

Throw an error when using the spin-up command.

Reason: The spin-up command is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Use terragrunt run --all apply instead.

tear-down

Throw an error when using the tear-down command.

Reason: The tear-down command is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Use terragrunt run --all destroy instead.

plan-all

Throw an error when using the plan-all command.

Reason: The plan-all command is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Use terragrunt run --all plan instead.

apply-all

Throw an error when using the apply-all command.

Reason: The apply-all command is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Use terragrunt run --all apply instead.

destroy-all

Throw an error when using the destroy-all command.

Reason: The destroy-all command is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Use terragrunt run --all destroy instead.

output-all

Throw an error when using the output-all command.

Reason: The output-all command is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Use terragrunt run --all output instead.

validate-all

Throw an error when using the validate-all command.

Reason: The validate-all command is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Use terragrunt run --all validate instead.

skip-dependencies-inputs

Disable reading of dependency inputs to enhance dependency resolution performance by preventing recursively parsing Terragrunt inputs from dependencies.

Reason: Enabling the skip-dependencies-inputs option prevents the recursive parsing of Terragrunt inputs, leading to optimized performance during dependency resolution.

require-explicit-bootstrap

Require explicit usage of --backend-bootstrap to automatically bootstrap backend resources.

root-terragrunt-hcl

Throw an error when users try to reference a root terragrunt.hcl file using find_in_parent_folders.

This control will also try to find other scenarios where users may be using terragrunt.hcl as the root configuration, including when using commands like scaffold and catalog, which can generate a terragrunt.hcl file expecting a terragrunt.hcl file at the root of the project. Enabling this flag adjusts the defaults for those commands so that they expect a recommended root.hcl file by default, and will throw an error if a terragrunt.hcl file is explicitly set.

Reason: Using a root terragrunt.hcl file was previously the recommended pattern to use with Terragrunt, but that is no longer the case. For more information see Migrating from root terragrunt.hcl.

terragrunt-prefix-flags

Throw an error when using the --terragrunt- prefix for flags.

Reason: This is no longer necessary, due to the work in RFC #3445. Example: The --terragrunt-non-interactive flag is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Use --non-interactive instead.

terragrunt-prefix-env-vars

Throw an error when using the TERRAGRUNT_ prefix for environment variables.

Reason: This prefix has been renamed to TG_ to shorten the prefix, due to the work in RFC #3445. Example: The TERRAGRUNT_LOG_LEVEL env var is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Use TG_LOG_LEVEL=info instead.

default-command

Throw an error when using the Terragrunt default command.

Reason: Terragrunt now supports a special run command that can be used to explicitly forward commands to OpenTofu/Terraform when no shortcut exists in the Terragrunt CLI. Example: The default command is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Use terragrunt run instead.

cli-redesign

Throw an error when using commands that were deprecated as part of the CLI redesign.

Commands:

  • run-all
  • graph
  • graph-dependencies
  • hclfmt
  • hclvalidate
  • output-module-groups
  • render-json
  • terragrunt-info
  • validate-inputs

Reason: These commands have been deprecated in favor of more consistent and intuitive commands as part of the CLI redesign. For more information, see the CLI Redesign Migration Guide.

bare-include

Throw an error when using a bare include.

Reason: Backwards compatibility for supporting bare includes results in a performance penalty for Terragrunt, and deprecating support provides a significant performance improvement. For more information, see the Bare Include Migration Guide.

Control Categories

Certain strict controls are grouped into categories to make it easier to enable multiple strict controls at once.

These categories change over time, so you might want to use the specific strict controls if you want to ensure that only certain controls are enabled.

deprecated-commands

Throw an error when using the deprecated commands.

Controls:

deprecated-flags

Throw an error when using the deprecated flags.

Controls:

deprecated-env-vars

Throw an error when using the deprecated environment variables.

Controls:

deprecated-configs

Throw an error when using the deprecated Terragrunt configuration.

Controls:

legacy-all

Throw an error when using any of the legacy commands replaced by run-all.

Controls: