What is Terraform Workspace? | DevOps Dictionary

What Is a Terraform Workspace?

A Terraform workspace is a way to run the same configuration multiple times with separate state files — without duplicating any code.

Every Terraform configuration starts in a workspace called default. When you create a new workspace called staging, Terraform creates a second, completely separate state file. Your configuration code stays identical — only which state file Terraform reads and writes changes depending on which workspace is active.

Think of workspaces as named slots for state. Same code, different state slot, different real infrastructure.

Bash

+------------------------------------------+
| One S3 backend bucket                    |
|                                          |
| env:/                                    |
|   dev/                                   |
|     payments-api/terraform.tfstate       |
|   staging/                               |
|     payments-api/terraform.tfstate       |
|   prod/                                  |
|     payments-api/terraform.tfstate       |
| payments-api/terraform.tfstate (default) |
+------------------------------------------+

Workspace Commands

Bash

# List all workspaces — asterisk marks the active one
terraform workspace list
# * default
#   dev
#   staging
#   prod
 
# Create a new workspace
terraform workspace new staging
# Created and switched to workspace "staging"!
# You are now on a new, empty workspace. Workspaces isolate their state,
# so if you run "terraform plan" Terraform will not see any existing state
# for this configuration.
 
# Switch to an existing workspace
terraform workspace select prod
# Switched to workspace "prod".
 
# Show the current workspace
terraform workspace show
# prod
 
# Delete a workspace (must be empty — no resources in state)
terraform workspace delete dev

Using terraform.workspace in Configuration

The built-in terraform.workspace variable returns the name of the active workspace. Use it to drive environment-specific values:

PGSQL

# main.tf
 
locals {
  # Different instance sizes per workspace
  instance_type = {
    default = "t3.micro"
    dev     = "t3.micro"
    staging = "t3.small"
    prod    = "t3.large"
  }
 
  # Different replica counts per workspace
  db_replica_count = {
    default = 0
    dev     = 0
    staging = 0
    prod    = 1
  }
}
 
resource "aws_instance" "app" {
  instance_type = local.instance_type[terraform.workspace]
  # In dev workspace:  t3.micro
  # In prod workspace: t3.large
 
  tags = {
    Environment = terraform.workspace
    Name        = "swiggy-api-${terraform.workspace}-server"
  }
}
 
resource "aws_db_instance" "main" {
  replicas = local.db_replica_count[terraform.workspace]
}

Workspace Limitations — When NOT to Use Them

Workspaces are useful for short-lived environments (feature branches, PR previews) but have real limitations for permanent environment separation:

◈ DIAGRAM

+------------------------------------------+
| Workspace limitations                    |
|                                          |
| Shared backend permissions:              |
| If an engineer can access the backend,   |
| they can access ALL workspace state      |
| files — dev and prod alike               |
|                                          |
| No per-workspace access control:         |
| You cannot restrict who can apply to     |
| the prod workspace at the backend level  |
|                                          |
| Single backend configuration:            |
| All workspaces share the same S3 bucket, |
| DynamoDB table, and IAM role             |
+------------------------------------------+

For permanent environment separation (dev/staging/prod at a serious company), most teams prefer the directory-per-environment pattern:

Bash

infrastructure/
  environments/
    dev/
      main.tf          <- backend key: dev/terraform.tfstate
      terraform.tfvars
    staging/
      main.tf          <- backend key: staging/terraform.tfstate
      terraform.tfvars
    prod/
      main.tf          <- backend key: prod/terraform.tfstate
      terraform.tfvars
  modules/
    vpc/
    compute/
    database/

Each environment directory has its own backend key, its own variable values, and can use separate AWS accounts with separate IAM permissions. A developer cannot accidentally apply to prod when working in the dev directory.

When Workspaces Are the Right Tool

Feature branch environments — spin up a temporary copy of staging for a PR, destroy it when the PR merges
Developer sandboxes — each engineer gets their own workspace to test changes
Short-lived test environments — load testing, chaos experiments, demo environments

Troubleshooting Workspaces

Error	Root Cause	Fix
`Workspace does not exist`	Wrong workspace name	Run `terraform workspace list` to see available workspaces
`Cannot delete workspace with resources`	State is not empty	Run `terraform destroy` in that workspace first
Resources look wrong after workspace switch	Forgot to switch workspace	Run `terraform workspace show` to confirm active workspace
`terraform.workspace` returns `default`	Never created named workspaces	Run `terraform workspace new <name>`

COMMON MISTAKE / WARNING
**Common Mistake:** Using workspaces as the primary mechanism to separate prod from dev in a large team. Workspaces share backend permissions — anyone who can apply to dev can also apply to prod. For strict environment isolation, use separate directories with separate backend keys and, ideally, separate AWS accounts.