OpenTofu Fundamentals

OpenTofu turns infrastructure decisions into reviewable configuration. You describe the resources you want. OpenTofu compares that configuration with recorded state and the remote systems, then proposes actions.

This approach is called infrastructure as code. Your configuration can live in version control beside application code. Teams can review a proposed change before an API call creates, updates, or destroys a resource.

The core mental model

Keep four parts separate:

1. Configuration describes the desired state.
2. Providers connect OpenTofu to remote APIs.
3. State maps resource addresses in configuration to real objects.
4. Plans show the actions that would move real infrastructure toward the desired state.

OpenTofu is declarative. You describe the result, not every API call in order. OpenTofu builds a dependency graph and orders operations from resource relationships.