Command: output

The tofu output command is used to extract the value of an output variable from the state file.

Usage

Usage: tofu output [options] [NAME]

With no additional arguments, output will display all the outputs for the root module. If an output NAME is specified, only the value of that output is printed.

:::note Use of variables in backend configuration or encryption block requires assigning values to root module variables when running tofu output. :::

The command-line flags are all optional. The following flags are available:

• -json - If specified, the outputs are formatted as a JSON object, with a key per output. If NAME is specified, only the output specified will be returned. This can be piped into tools such as jq for further processing.

• -raw - If specified, OpenTofu will convert the specified output value to a string and print that string directly to the output, without any special formatting. This can be convenient when working with shell scripts, but it only supports string, number, and boolean values. Use -json instead for processing complex data types.

• -no-color - If specified, output won't contain any color.

• -state=path - Path to the state file. Defaults to "terraform.tfstate". Ignored when remote state is used.

• -var 'NAME=VALUE' - Sets a value for a single input variable declared in the root module of the configuration. Use this option multiple times to set more than one variable. Refer to Input Variables on the Command Line for more information.

• -var-file=FILENAME - Sets values for potentially many input variables declared in the root module of the configuration, using definitions from a "tfvars" file. Use this option multiple times to include values from more than one file.

• -show-sensitive - If specified, sensitive values will be displayed.

There are several other ways to set values for input variables in the root module, aside from the -var and -var-file options. Refer to Assigning Values to Root Module Variables for more information.

:::note When using the -json or -raw command-line flag, any sensitive values in OpenTofu state will be displayed in plain text. For more information, see Sensitive Data in State. :::

Examples

These examples assume the following OpenTofu output snippet.

output "instance_ips" {
  value = aws_instance.web.*.public_ip
}

output "lb_address" {
  value = aws_alb.web.public_dns
}

output "password" {
  sensitive = true
  value = var.secret_password
}

To list all outputs:

$ tofu output
instance_ips = [
  "54.43.114.12",
  "52.122.13.4",
  "52.4.116.53"
]
lb_address = "my-app-alb-1657023003.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com"
password = <sensitive>

Note that outputs with the sensitive attribute will be redacted:

$ tofu output password
password = <sensitive>

To query for the DNS address of the load balancer:

$ tofu output lb_address
"my-app-alb-1657023003.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com"

To query for all instance IP addresses:

$ tofu output instance_ips
instance_ips = [
  "54.43.114.12",
  "52.122.13.4",
  "52.4.116.53"
]

Use in automation

The tofu output command by default displays in a human-readable format, which can change over time to improve clarity.

For scripting and automation, use -json to produce the stable JSON format. You can parse the output using a JSON command-line parser such as jq:

$ tofu output -json instance_ips | jq -r '.[0]'
54.43.114.12

For the common case of directly using a string value in a shell script, you can use -raw instead, which will print the string directly with no extra escaping or whitespace.

$ tofu output -raw lb_address
my-app-alb-1657023003.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com

The -raw option works only with values that OpenTofu can automatically convert to strings. Use -json instead, possibly combined with jq, to work with complex-typed values such as objects.

OpenTofu strings are sequences of Unicode characters rather than raw bytes, so the -raw output will be UTF-8 encoded when it contains non-ASCII characters. If you need a different character encoding, use a separate command such as iconv to transcode OpenTofu's raw output.