Python HCL2

A parser for HCL2 written in Python using Lark. It can be used as a Python library or through its CLI tools: hcl2tojson, jsontohcl2, and hq — a jq-like query tool for HCL files. Supports HCL2 only (not backwards compatible with HCL v1) and works with any HCL2 config file such as Terraform.

About Amplify

Amplify builds innovative and compelling digital educational products that empower teachers and students across the country. We have a long history as the leading innovator in K-12 education - and have been described as the best tech company in education and the best education company in tech. While others try to shrink the learning experience into the technology, we use technology to expand what is possible in real classrooms with real students and teachers.

Learn more at https://www.amplify.com

Getting Started

Prerequisites

python-hcl2 requires Python 3.8 or higher to run.

Installing

This package can be installed using pip

pip3 install python-hcl2

To install the CLI tools (hcl2tojson, jsontohcl2, hq) globally without affecting your project environments, use pipx:

pipx install python-hcl2

Usage

HCL2 to Python dict:

import hcl2

with open("main.tf") as f:
    data = hcl2.load(f)

Python dict to HCL2:

import hcl2

hcl_string = hcl2.dumps(data)

with open("output.tf", "w") as f:
    hcl2.dump(data, f)

Building HCL from scratch:

import hcl2

doc = hcl2.Builder()
res = doc.block("resource", labels=["aws_instance", "web"], ami="abc-123", instance_type="t2.micro")
res.block("tags", Name="HelloWorld")

hcl_string = hcl2.dumps(doc.build())

Documentation

Guide	Contents
Getting Started	Installation, load/dump, options, CLI converters
Querying HCL (Python)	DocumentView, BlockView, tree walking, view hierarchy
Advanced API	Pipeline stages, Builder
hq Reference	`hq` CLI — structural queries, hybrid/eval, introspection
hq Examples	Real-world queries for discovery, compliance, extraction
Migrating to v8	Breaking changes, updated API patterns, v7-compat options

CLI Tools

python-hcl2 ships three command-line tools:

# HCL2 → JSON
hcl2tojson main.tf                     # prints JSON to stdout
hcl2tojson main.tf output.json         # writes to file
hcl2tojson terraform/ output/          # converts a directory

# JSON → HCL2
jsontohcl2 output.json                 # prints HCL2 to stdout
jsontohcl2 output.json main.tf         # writes to file
jsontohcl2 output/ terraform/          # converts a directory

# Query HCL2 files
hq 'resource.aws_instance.main.ami' main.tf
hq 'variable[*]' variables.tf --json

All commands accept - as PATH to read from stdin. Run --help on any command for the full list of flags.

Building From Source

For development, tox>=4.0.9 is recommended.

Running Tests

python-hcl2 uses tox. You will need to install tox with pip install tox. Running tox will automatically execute linters as well as the unit tests.

You can also run them individually with the -e argument.

For example, tox -e py310-unit will run the unit tests for python 3.10

To see all the available options, run tox -l.

Releasing

To create a new release go to Releases page, press 'Draft a new release', create a tag with a version you want to be released, fill the release notes and press 'Publish release'. Github actions will take care of publishing it to PyPi.

Roadmap

Planned features, roughly in priority order:

MCP server — expose parsing, querying, and formatting as MCP tools for AI agents
Predictable formatting — source-derived formatting heuristics and stable whitespace defaults
In-place tree edits — hq set, hq delete for programmatic HCL modification
Comment deserialization — comments survive JSON round-trips and tree edits
Expression intelligence — variable reference tracking, unused variable detection, cross-file analysis
Refactoring operations — hq rename, hq extract-module, hq sort for high-level code transforms

Responsible Disclosure

If you have any security issue to report, contact project maintainers privately. You can reach us at mailto:github@amplify.com

Contributing

We welcome pull requests! For your pull request to be accepted smoothly, we suggest that you:

For any sizable change, first open a GitHub issue to discuss your idea.
Create a pull request. Explain why you want to make the change and what it's for.

We'll try to answer any PR's promptly.

Limitations

None that are known.

Release files for python-hcl2 8.1.4

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for python-hcl2 8.1.4
File	Size	Uploaded
python_hcl2-8.1.4.tar.gz	119.3 kB	Sep 8, 2026	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for python-hcl2 8.1.4
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
python_hcl2-8.1.4-py3-none-any.whl 103.0 kB Sep 8, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 222.3 kB

Release files / python_hcl2-8.1.4.tar.gz

Download URL	python_hcl2-8.1.4.tar.gz
Size	119.3 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`b4145c930540e99e3e9b4f7de297775bdf856df29782a7abdb0916cbfcab7865`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`ff3ba66df999c382abf2d37f6c7b618a782958615acd41a53615f994dfd6611b`
Upload date	Sep 8, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14`

Release files / python_hcl2-8.1.4-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	python_hcl2-8.1.4-py3-none-any.whl
Size	103.0 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`75738bd95717d692a683495babf4d00063f1b211e2eca04b156c6d79b9a0feae`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`5ac79b8918ab4954ecad677b03f36f9121d5467a4285f41507fdc6789a33dc3c`
Upload date	Sep 8, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14`