Skip to main content

Use OpenTofu as Docker Image

OpenTofu is available as OCI container images, and distributed via public GitHub Packages registry.

Versions​

Images are hosted as packages in the OpenTofu GitHub organization. See the list of available versions here.

The multi platform images are available using the following tags:

  • latest: latest overall version of OpenTofu,
  • Major: a specific major version of OpenTofu,
  • Major.Minor: a specific minor version of OpenTofu,
  • Major.Minor.Patch: a specific patch version of OpenTofu.

To pull platform-specific images (amd64, arm, arm64, 386) use:

  • <Version>-<Platform>: a platform specific version of OpenTofu.

Usage​

To pull the image from GitHub Packages registry:

Code Block
docker pull ghcr.io/opentofu/opentofu:latest

To run OpenTofu as a Docker container:

Code Block
# Init providers plugins
docker run \
    --workdir=/srv/workspace \
    --mount type=bind,source=.,target=/srv/workspace \
    ghcr.io/opentofu/opentofu:latest \
    init

# Creating plan file
docker run \
    --workdir=/srv/workspace \
    --mount type=bind,source=.,target=/srv/workspace \
    ghcr.io/opentofu/opentofu:latest \
    plan -out=main.plan

# Applying plan file
docker run \
    --workdir=/srv/workspace \
    --mount type=bind,source=.,target=/srv/workspace \
    ghcr.io/opentofu/opentofu:latest \
    apply "/srv/workspace/main.plan"

Building your own image​

The OCI image published by OpenTofu is intended as a basic command line tool. If you need additional tools in the image or want to build services on top of OpenTofu, you will need to build your own image. This section outlines how to accomplish that.

Step 1: Obtaining the installation script​

OpenTofu publishes POSIX/Powershell installation scripts. You can use these scripts to safely install OpenTofu in your container image. Please follow the standalone installation instructions to obtain the installation script and place it next to your Dockerfile/Containerfile.

Step 2: Creating a stage for installation​

Next, you can start creating a download stage in your Dockerfile/Containerfile. For details on multi-stage builds please read the Docker documentation.

Code Block
FROM alpine:3.20 AS tofu

ADD install-opentofu.sh /install-opentofu.sh
RUN chmod +x /install-opentofu.sh
RUN apk add gpg
RUN ./install-opentofu.sh --install-method standalone --install-path / --symlink-path -

Step 3: Creating your own image​

Now you can add your image below the installation stage and copy the tofu binary into it:

Code Block
FROM alpine:3.20 AS tofu

ADD install-opentofu.sh /install-opentofu.sh
RUN chmod +x /install-opentofu.sh
RUN apk add gpg
RUN ./install-opentofu.sh --install-method standalone --install-path / --symlink-path -

## This is your stage:
FROM ubuntu
COPY --from=tofu /tofu /usr/local/bin/tofu

# Add your commands here