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The open source infrastructure as code tool.

Previously named OpenTF, OpenTofu is a fork of Terraform that is open-source, community-driven, and managed by the Linux Foundation.

Our Goals

Truly open-source

under a well-known and widely-accepted license that companies can trust, that won’t suddenly change in the future, and isn’t subject to the whims of a single vendor.

Community-driven

so that the community governs the project for the community, where pull requests are regularly reviewed and accepted on their merit.

Impartial

so that valuable features and fixes are accepted based on their value to the community, regardless of their impact on any particular vendor.

Layered and modular

with a programmer-friendly project structure to encourage building on top, enabling a new vibrant ecosystem of tools and integrations.

Backwards-compatible

so that the existing code can drive value for years to come.

How to contribute to OpenTofu?

The best way to show practical support for the OpenTofu initiative is to contribute. This contribution guide explains OpenTofu contribution recommended practices, including how to submit issues, how to get involved in the discussion, how to work on the code, and how to contribute code changes.

Contribute

Frequently Asked Questions

What is OpenTofu?

OpenTofu is a Terraform fork, created as an initiative of Gruntwork, Spacelift, Harness, Env0, Scalr, and others, in response to HashiCorp’s switch from an open-source license to the BUSL. The initiative has many supporters, all of whom are listed here.

Why was OpenTofu created?

The BUSL and the additional use grant outlined by the HashiCorp team are ambiguous, which makes it challenging for companies, vendors, and developers using Terraform to decide whether their actions could be interpreted as being outside the permitted scope of use.

Hashicorp’s FAQs give some peace of mind to end users and system integrators for now, but the licensing terms’ implications for future usage are unclear. The possibility that the company’s definition of “competitive” or “embedding” could change or the license could be further modified to make it closed source prompts uncertainty for Terraform users.

We firmly believe that Terraform should remain open-source because it is a project many companies use, and many contributors have made Terraform what it is today. Terraform’s success would not have been possible without the community’s work to build many supporting projects around it.

What are the differences between OpenTofu and Terraform?

On the technical level, OpenTofu 1.6.x is very similar feature-wise to Terraform 1.6.x. In the future, the projects feature sets will diverge.

The other main difference is that OpenTofu is open-source, and its goal is to be driven in a collaborative way with no single company being able to dictate the roadmap.

Why should you use OpenTofu instead of Terraform?

Personal use

Initial impressions suggest you could use either OpenTofu or Terraform for personal use, as the BUSL license has no restrictions for non-commercial use cases. That may change as the Terraform ecosystem becomes increasingly unstable, and a switch to another license may happen. Those familiar with Terraform will have no issues adopting OpenTofu for personal use, so there will be no knowledge gaps, at least at the start.

Consultants

A consultant should offer their clients the best possible solution that aligns with their budget. OpenTofu will be on par with Terraform, and one of the project’s central objectives is to listen to the community’s issues, so it makes sense to recommend a project that will always stay open-source. Anyone who has used Terraform in the last eight years has probably come across issues that took some time to be resolved. The large community involved in developing OpenTofu means this will no longer be the case.

Companies

Companies will encounter more difficulties with the situation. Switching to a new project carries risks, but staying with a project that changes its license without warning is far riskier. This risk is minimized by giving OpenTofu to the Linux Foundation, and OpenTofu’s aim of maintaining feature parity with Terraform for future releases reduces the technical risks.

Will OpenTofu be compatible with future Terraform releases?

The community will decide what features OpenTofu will have. Some long-awaited Terraform features will be publicly available soon.

If you're missing a feature in OpenTofu that's available in Terraform, feel free to create an issue.

Can I use OpenTofu as a drop-in replacement for Terraform? Is OpenTofu suitable for production use?

Right now, OpenTofu is a drop-in replacement for Terraform, as it's compatible with Terraform versions 1.5.x and most of 1.6.x. You don’t need to make any changes to your code to ensure compatibility.

OpenTofu is suitable for production use cases without any exception.

Please see our migration guide for more information.

Supporters

  • Supporting Companies: 163
  • Supporting Projects: 12
  • Supporting Foundations: 1
  • Supporting Individuals: 792
  • Harness

    Cover the cost of 5 FTEs for at least 5 years

  • Gruntwork

    Development; open-source community efforts

  • Spacelift

    Cover the cost of 5 FTEs for at least 5 years

  • env0

    Cover the cost of 5 FTEs for at least 5 years

  • Scalr

    Cover the cost of 3 FTEs for at least 5 years