Enabling trace-level logs in HCP Terraform, Terraform Enterprise and Terraform CLI – HashiCorp Help Center

There are a few ways to enable trace-level logs in Terraform, depending on what product is being used.

Generally, to capture a trace log, set the environment variable TF_LOG to TRACE. Refer to the details below for specific steps for your Terraform product:

Terraform Enterprise and HCP Terraform

Via Workspace Run UI

In Terraform Enterprise (v202502-2 or later) or HCP Terraform navigate to the Overview page of the workspace.

Start a new run by clicking New Run.
Configure Run Name and Run Type as desired.
Expand Additional Planning Options > Toggle Enable Debug Logging.
1. NOTE: Enabling trace logging this way enables it for this run only and will need enabled for any follow up runs.

Start Run.

Via Workspace Variables

In Terraform Enterprise or HCP Terraform, perform these steps in your Workspace:

Navigate to Settings > General > User Interface, and select "Console UI"
Navigate to Variables > Workspace Variables, and add a new variable with "Environment" as category, TF_LOG as key, and TRACE as value
Start a new run
Click on "View raw log"

Once you are done debugging, you can simply delete the variable from the Terraform Enterprise UI.

Terraform CLI

Unix/Linux & macOS

In your Linux/macOS terminal, run the following commands:

Set the TF_LOG environment variable:
```
export TF_LOG="TRACE"
```
Run the Terraform operation that you wish to debug, e.g., init, plan, apply, or import. Make sure you capture stdout and stderr with 2>&1, and disable ANSI color escape sequences with -no-color:
```
terraform plan -no-color 2>&1 | tee plan.log
```

Once you are done debugging, remove the variable by running: unset TF_LOG

Windows

In your PowerShell terminal, run the following commands:

Set the TF_LOG environment variable:
```
$Env:TF_LOG="TRACE"
```
Run the Terraform operation that you wish to debug, e.g., init, plan, apply, or import. Make sure you capture stdout and stderr with 2>&1, and disable ANSI color escape sequences with -no-color:
```
terraform plan -no-color 2>&1 | Tee-Object -FilePath plan.log
```

Once you are done debugging, remove the variable by running: $Env:TF_LOG=""