terraform-motf

motf - Terraform Monorepo Orchestrator

A command-line tool for working with Terraform monorepos. motf (pronounced motif) makes it easy to run terraform/tofu commands on components, bases, and projects organized in a monorepo structure.

Features

• Simple commands: Run init, fmt, validate, plan, and test on any module by name
• Smart discovery: Recursively finds modules in nested subdirectories
• Change detection: Run commands only on modified modules with --changed
• Module inspection: View detailed module info with get and describe
• Custom tasks: Define shell commands in .motf.yml
• CI-friendly: JSON output, exit codes, and scripting support

Installation

# Using go install
go install github.com/TechnicallyJoe/terraform-motf/cmd/motf@latest

Building

# Or build from source
git clone https://github.com/TechnicallyJoe/terraform-motf.git
cd terraform-motf
go build -o motf ./cmd/motf

Requirements

• Go 1.25+ (for building)
• terraform or tofu CLI in PATH

Quick Start

$ motf help

motf (Terraform Monorepo Orchestrator) is a CLI tool for working with Terraform monorepos.

It supports running terraform/tofu commands on components, bases, and projects organized
in a structured monorepo.

Usage:
  motf [command]

Examples:
  motf fmt storage-account         # Run fmt on storage-account (searches all types)
  motf val k8s-argocd              # Run validate on k8s-argocd
  motf val -i k8s-argocd           # Run init then validate on k8s-argocd
  motf init k8s-argocd             # Run init on k8s-argocd
  motf fmt --path iac/components/azurerm/storage-account  # Run fmt on explicit path
  motf init storage-account -a -upgrade -a -reconfigure  # Run init with extra args

Available Commands:
  completion  Generate the autocompletion script for the specified shell
  config      Show current configuration
  describe    Describe the interface of a Terraform module
  fmt         Run terraform/tofu fmt on a component, base, or project
  get         Get details about a component, base, or project
  help        Help about any command
  init        Run terraform/tofu init on a component, base, or project
  list        List all modules (components, bases, and projects)
  plan        Run terraform/tofu plan on a component, base, or project
  task        Run a custom task from .motf.yml
  test        Run tests on a component, base, or project
  val         Run terraform/tofu validate on a component, base, or project
  version     Print version information

Flags:
  -a, --args stringArray   Extra arguments to pass to terraform/tofu (can be specified multiple times)
  -c, --config string      Path to config file (default: searches for .motf.yml)
  -h, --help               help for motf
      --path string        Explicit path (mutually exclusive with module name)
  -v, --version            version for motf

Use "motf [command] --help" for more information about a command.

Documentation

For comprehensive documentation, see the Wiki:

Repository Structure

motf expects a polylith-style monorepo for types to work:

repository-root/
├── .motf.yml              # Optional configuration
├── components/            # Reusable Terraform modules
├── bases/                 # Composable base configurations
└── projects/              # Deployable infrastructure

Create .motf.yml in your repository root. This can be used to customize settings like module root, binary choice (terraform vs tofu), and define custom tasks.

See Configuration for all options.

Releases

Download the latest release from the Releases page.

Releases are automated via GoReleaser when a version tag is pushed:

git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! This project uses Conventional Commits:

Types

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.