Terraform History & Versions

How Terraform started

In 2011 Mitchell Hashimoto wrote that he wanted an open, cloud-independent way to describe infrastructure as code, something like AWS CloudFormation but for every provider. In 2012 he and Armon Dadgar founded HashiCorp, and on 28 July 2014 they released Terraform 0.1, written in Go.

Terraform's ideas set it apart: a declarative language, a plan that shows changes before they happen, a state file that maps code to real resources, and a provider plug-in system that lets anyone add support for a new platform. Thousands of providers now cover every major cloud and SaaS product.

IBM completed its acquisition of HashiCorp in February 2025; Terraform remains a separate product.

Timeline of major versions

1. Terraform 1.17Oct 2026Current

   • Variables and locals in provider requirements; -minimal-refresh planning; Terraform Policy generally available
2. Terraform 1.16Aug 2026Published

   • import blocks inside modules; a store block in terraform_data for ephemeral and sensitive values
3. Terraform 1.15Apr 2026Published

   • deprecated variables and outputs, variables in module source, the convert() function, backend validation
4. Terraform 1.14Nov 2025Published

   • terraform query and list resources to find existing infrastructure; provider-defined actions
5. Terraform 1.11Feb 2025Published

   • Write-only arguments: secrets that are never stored in state
6. Terraform 1.10Nov 2024Published

   • Ephemeral values and resources; native S3 state locking (use_lockfile)
7. Terraform 1.9Jun 2024Published

   • Variable validation can refer to other variables and objects; templatestring()
8. Terraform 1.8Apr 2024Published

   • Provider-defined functions
9. Terraform 1.7Jan 2024Published

   • Mocking in tests; removed blocks
10. Terraform 1.6Oct 2023Published

    • terraform test; the first release under the Business Source License
11. Terraform 1.5Jun 2023Published

    • import blocks and generated configuration; check blocks
12. Terraform 1.4Mar 2023Published

    • The terraform_data resource
13. Terraform 1.3Sep 2022Published

    • Optional object attributes with defaults
14. Terraform 1.2May 2022Published

    • Preconditions, postconditions and replace_triggered_by
15. Terraform 1.1Dec 2021Published

    • moved blocks for refactoring; the cloud block for Terraform Cloud
16. Terraform 1.0Jun 2021Published

    • General availability with compatibility promises for the 1.x series
17. Terraform 0.14Dec 2020Historic

    • The dependency lock file .terraform.lock.hcl; sensitive variables
18. Terraform 0.13Aug 2020Historic

    • count and for_each for modules; provider source addresses for the public registry
19. Terraform 0.12May 2019Historic

    • HCL2: first-class expressions, for expressions, dynamic blocks and rich types
20. Terraform 0.1Jul 2014Historic

    • The first release

How Terraform modernized

• HCL2 (0.12). Early Terraform needed string interpolation for everything ("${var.x}"). 0.12 made expressions, loops and types first-class, the biggest language change in its history.
• Stability (1.0). Version 1.0 promised that 1.x configurations and state keep working, ending years of breaking upgrades.
• Safer refactoring and adoption. moved (1.1), import blocks (1.5) and removed (1.7) let teams rename, adopt and retire resources in code, through the normal plan and review process.
• Testing and validation. Preconditions (1.2), check blocks (1.5), terraform test (1.6) and mocks (1.7) brought software-testing practices to infrastructure code.
• Secrets that stay out of state. Ephemeral values (1.10) and write-only arguments (1.11) addressed the long-standing problem of passwords stored in state files.
• The licence change and OpenTofu. In August 2023 HashiCorp moved Terraform from the open-source MPL 2.0 to the Business Source License (BSL 1.1), starting with 1.6. Community members forked the last MPL version as OpenTofu, now hosted by the Linux Foundation. Both tools read the same configuration language, but have diverged in newer features.

Terraform compared with other IaC tools

Which version should you use?

• New projects: the latest Terraform 1.x (1.17 today). Pin it with required_version = ">= 1.17" and upgrade regularly; minor upgrades within 1.x are designed to be safe.
• Existing projects: read the upgrade notes for each minor version you skip, run terraform plan after upgrading, and make sure the plan shows no unexpected changes before applying.
• Licence-sensitive organisations: OpenTofu is the open-source alternative; check which newer features your configurations rely on before switching.

Official resources

• Terraform documentation and the language reference
• Terraform releases on GitHub, with release notes for every version
• Terraform Registry: providers and modules
• HashiCorp licence FAQ
• OpenTofu

Last reviewed 21 October 2026. Release and support dates come from the official release pages linked above.