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hcledit

Command-line editor for HCL2 configuration files

TLDR

Get an attribute value from stdin HCL
$ cat [file.hcl] | hcledit attribute get [resource.foo.bar.attr]
Set an attribute (print result)
$ cat [file.hcl] | hcledit attribute set [resource.foo.bar.attr] '["val"]'
Update file in place
$ hcledit attribute set [resource.foo.bar.attr] '["val"]' -f [file.hcl] -u
Remove an attribute
$ cat [file.hcl] | hcledit attribute rm [resource.foo.bar.attr]
List blocks
$ cat [file.hcl] | hcledit block list
Get a block
$ cat [file.hcl] | hcledit block get [resource.foo.bar]
Format HCL
$ hcledit fmt -f [file.hcl] -u

SYNOPSIS

hcledit [*global-flags*] *command*

DESCRIPTION

hcledit is a schemaless command-line editor for HCL2. It reads HCL from stdin (or -f), applies token-based edits that preserve comments, and writes the result to stdout (or updates in place with -u). It was built for Terraform-style refactoring but works for any HCL2 file without needing the target application binary.Operations cover attributes (get, set, append, rm, mv, replace), blocks (list, get, append, new, rm, mv), body extraction, and fmt.Install via Homebrew, release binaries, or make install from source.

PARAMETERS

attribute get|set|append|rm|mv|replace ...

Read or modify attributes by dotted address (for example resource.foo.bar.nested.attr).
block list|get|append|new|rm|mv ...
Inspect or reshape blocks and labels.
body get
Extract body content.
fmt
Format HCL.
-f, --file *path*
Input file (default - stdin).
-u, --update
Write changes back to the file in place.

INSTALL

brew install hcledit
nix profile install nixpkgs#hcledit

CAVEATS

HCL2 only (not HCL1). Schemaless parsing can be looser than application validation; always review diffs and run terraform validate (or equivalent) after bulk edits. Quote string values carefully when setting attributes from the shell.

SEE ALSO

terraform(1), hclfmt(1), jq(1)

RESOURCES

Source code