python-hcl2 8.1.1

A parser for HCL2

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:[e-mail]

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.