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OpenTofu

by Linux Foundation (OpenTofu project) · CLI tool · also known as OpenTF

Community fork of Terraform under the Linux Foundation, keeping the HCL language, provider ecosystem and state model under the MPL-2.0 license

MPL-2.0 licenseOpen sourceFreeLocalSelf-hostable
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Link verified Nov 2, 2026

Overview

OpenTofu is an infrastructure-as-code tool created in 2023 as a fork of Terraform after HashiCorp moved Terraform to the Business Source License. It is stewarded by the Linux Foundation and released under MPL-2.0. The command-line workflow is the one Terraform users know: write HCL describing providers and resources, run tofu plan to preview changes, tofu apply to reconcile real infrastructure with the configuration, and keep state locally or in a remote backend.

Existing Terraform configurations, modules and providers from the public registry work largely unchanged, and OpenTofu publishes its own registry that mirrors providers and modules. The project has added features of its own, such as state encryption, early variable evaluation and provider-defined functions, while aiming to remain a drop-in replacement for common workflows.

As a younger project it has a smaller vendor ecosystem for hosted execution (several third-party platforms support it), and features diverge gradually from Terraform, so teams must choose one tool per state file.

Capabilities

  • Declarative infrastructure in HCL with plan and apply workflow
  • Compatible with Terraform providers and modules via its own registry
  • Remote state backends with locking
  • Client-side state encryption
  • Workspaces, modules and provider-defined functions

Typical workflows

  1. Provision cloud servers, DNS and networking from version-controlled HCL
  2. Migrate an existing Terraform project without rewriting configuration
  3. Run plan and apply in CI with encrypted remote state

Strengths

  • OSI-approved MPL-2.0 license under neutral governance
  • Drop-in compatibility with most Terraform code
  • Additional features such as state encryption

Limitations

  • Smaller commercial ecosystem than Terraform
  • Gradual divergence means configurations must target one tool
  • No first-party hosted execution service

Prerequisites

  • Provider credentials for the target platforms

Who it is for

  • Infrastructure and platform engineers
  • Organizations avoiding source-available licensing

Alternatives & comparison

Terraform is the original with HCP Terraform as hosted service but under BSL 1.1; OpenTofu keeps an open-source license and governance. Ansible is procedural configuration management rather than declarative provisioning, and the two are often combined.

  • Ansible

    Agentless configuration management and orchestration tool that runs YAML playbooks over SSH, with collections for clouds, network gear and applications

    Open sourceOpen source
  • Terraform

    Infrastructure-as-code tool that provisions cloud and SaaS resources from HCL configurations through a plan-and-apply workflow, licensed under BSL 1.1

    Source-availableFree
Compare OpenTofu with its alternatives →

Sources & verification

Primary sources consulted for this record. Claims are tied to the fields each source supports; the automated link checker re-verifies every URL on a schedule.

  • License
    OpenTofu LICENSE (MPL-2.0)

    https://github.com/opentofu/opentofu/blob/main/LICENSE

    Supports: license_spdx, source_model

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Official documentation
    OpenTofu Documentation

    https://opentofu.org/docs

    Supports: capabilities, workflows

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Official site
    OpenTofu

    https://opentofu.org/

    Supports: name, summary, vendor

    States the project is under the Linux Foundation's stewardship and a drop-in replacement for Terraform.

    checked Nov 1, 2026
Confidence
High
Reviewed
Nov 1, 2026
Links
Verified · Nov 2, 2026

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