You run Terraform using its Command Line Interface (CLI). HashiCorp's Install Terraform page includes information about installing Terraform on Windows, Mac and Linux systems. You should install Terraform on the computer from which you plan to start and manage your cloud system. You can choose to install it on a cloud instance, but that instance may not be part of the configuration that Terraform will deploy.

HashiCorp currently offers numerous options for installing Terraform, depending on your operating system (OS). One of the most convenient options is to download a pre-compiled binary, which you must store somewhere on your computer. Whether you download a binary or build Terraform from its source code, you must add the resulting executable's location to your PATH environment variable. HashiCorp provides OS-specific instructions for doing this on its installation page.

The examples in this topic require a minimum Terraform version of 1.0.0 to run, and were tested using version 1.7.4. If you are working with an older version of Terraform, you may need to modify the example code for it to work. Similarly, if you find older code samples online, you may need to adapt them to work with the newer versions of Terraform.