hcledit

Features

• CLI-friendly: Read HCL from stdin, edit and write to stdout, easily pipe and combine other commands
• Token-based edit: You can update lots of existing HCL files with automation scripts without losing comments.
• Schemaless: No dependency on specific HCL application binary or schema
• Support HCL2 (not HCL1)
• Available operations:

The hcledit focuses on editing HCL with command line, doesn't aim for generic query tools. It was originally born for refactoring Terraform configurations, but it's not limited to specific applications. The HCL specification is somewhat generic, so usability takes precedence over strictness if there is room for interpreting meanings in the schemaless approach.

Install

Homebrew

If you are macOS user:

$ brew install minamijoyo/hcledit/hcledit

Download

Download the latest compiled binaries and put it anywhere in your executable path.

https://github.com/minamijoyo/hcledit/releases

Source

If you have Go 1.26+ development environment:

$ git clone https://github.com/minamijoyo/hcledit
$ cd hcledit/
$ make install
$ hcledit version

Usage

$ hcledit --help
A command line editor for HCL
Usage:   hcledit [command]
Available Commands:   attribute   Edit attribute   block       Edit block   body        Edit body   fmt         Format file   help        Help about any command   version     Print version
Flags:   -f, --file string   A path of input file (default "-")   -h, --help          help for hcledit   -u, --update        Update files in-place
Use "hcledit [command] --help" for more information about a command.

attribute

$ hcledit attribute --help
Edit attribute
Usage:   hcledit attribute [flags]   hcledit attribute [command]
Available Commands:   append      Append attribute   get         Get attribute   mv          Move attribute (Rename attribute key)   replace     Replace both the name and value of attribute   rm          Remove attribute   set         Set attribute
Flags:   -h, --help   help for attribute
Global Flags:   -f, --file string   A path of input file (default "-")   -u, --update        Update files in-place
Use "hcledit attribute [command] --help" for more information about a command.

Given the following file:

.hcl
resource "foo" "bar" {
  attr1 = "val1"
  nested {
    attr2 = "val2"
  }
}

$ cat tmp/attr.hcl | hcledit attribute get resource.foo.bar.nested.attr2
"val2"

$ cat tmp/attr.hcl | hcledit attribute set resource.foo.bar.nested.attr2 '"val3"'
resource "foo" "bar" {
  attr1 = "val1"
  nested {
    attr2 = "val3"
  }
}

$ cat tmp/attr.hcl | hcledit attribute mv resource.foo.bar.nested.attr2 resource.foo.bar.nested.attr3
resource "foo" "bar" {
  attr1 = "val1"
  nested {
    attr3 = "val2"
  }
}

$ cat tmp/attr.hcl | hcledit attribute replace resource.foo.bar.nested.attr2 attr3 '"val3"'
resource "foo" "bar" {
  attr1 = "val1"
  nested {
    attr3 = "val3"
  }
}

$ cat tmp/attr.hcl | hcledit attribute rm resource.foo.bar.attr1
resource "foo" "bar" {
  nested {
    attr2 = "val2"
  }
}

$ cat tmp/attr.hcl | hcledit attribute append resource.foo.bar.nested.attr3 '"val3"' --newline
resource "foo" "bar" {
  attr1 = "val1"
  nested {
    attr2 = "val2"
attr3 = "val3"   } }

block

$ hcledit block --help
Edit block
Usage:   hcledit block [flags]   hcledit block [command]
Available Commands:   append      Append block   get         Get block   list        List block   mv          Move block (Rename block type and labels)   new         Create a new block   rm          Remove block
Flags:   -h, --help   help for block
Global Flags:   -f, --file string   A path of input file (default "-")   -u, --update        Update files in-place
Use "hcledit block [command] --help" for more information about a command.

Given the following file:

.hcl
resource "foo" "bar" {
  attr1 = "val1"
}
resource "foo" "baz" {   attr1 = "val2" }

$ cat tmp/block.hcl | hcledit block list
resource.foo.bar
resource.foo.baz

$ cat tmp/block.hcl | hcledit block get resource.foo.bar
resource "foo" "bar" {
  attr1 = "val1"
}

$ cat tmp/block.hcl | hcledit block mv resource.foo.bar resource.foo.qux
resource "foo" "qux" {
  attr1 = "val1"
}
resource "foo" "baz" {   attr1 = "val2" }

$ cat tmp/block.hcl | hcledit block rm resource.foo.baz
resource "foo" "bar" {
  attr1 = "val1"
}

$ cat tmp/block.hcl | hcledit block append resource.foo.bar block1.label1 --newline
resource "foo" "bar" {
  attr1 = "val1"
block1 "label1" {   } }
resource "foo" "baz" {   attr1 = "val2" }

$ cat tmp/block.hcl | hcledit block new resource.foo.qux --newline
resource "foo" "bar" {
  attr1 = "val1"
}
resource "foo" "baz" {   attr1 = "val2" }
resource "foo" "qux" { }

body

$ hcledit body --help
Edit body
Usage:   hcledit body [flags]   hcledit body [command]
Available Commands:   get         Get body
Flags:   -h, --help   help for body
Global Flags:   -f, --file string   A path of input file (default "-")   -u, --update        Update files in-place
Use "hcledit body [command] --help" for more information about a command.

Given the following file:

.hcl
resource "foo" "bar" {
  attr1 = "val1"
  nested {
    attr2 = "val2"
  }
}

$ cat tmp/body.hcl | hcledit body get resource.foo.bar
attr1 = "val1"
nested {
  attr2 = "val2"
}

fmt

$ hcledit fmt --help
Format a file to a caconical style
Usage:   hcledit fmt [flags]
Flags:   -h, --help   help for fmt
Global Flags:   -f, --file string   A path of input file (default "-")   -u, --update        Update files in-place

Given the following file:

$ cat tmp/fmt.hcl
resource "foo" "bar" {
  attr1 = "val1"
  attr2="val2"
}

$ cat tmp/fmt.hcl | hcledit fmt
resource "foo" "bar" {
  attr1 = "val1"
  attr2 = "val2"
}

Address escaping

Address escaping is supported for labels that contain ..

Given the following file:

.hcl
resource "foo.bar" {
  attr1 = "val1"
  nested {
    attr2 = "val2"
  }
}

$ cat tmp/attr.hcl | hcledit attribute get 'resource.foo\.bar.nested.attr2'
"val2"

License

MIT