hashicorp/terraform · error

error loading plugin path

Error message

error loading plugin path: %s

What it means

Thrown by validate.go when c.loadPluginPath() returns an error during `terraform validate`. Identical mechanism to [754]: a user-supplied plugin_directory (CLI config or -plugin-dir) is invalid, missing, or unreadable. Wrapped with %s.

Solutions

1. Inspect ~/.terraformrc / TF_CLI_CONFIG_FILE for `plugin_directory` and validate the path.
2. Drop `-plugin-dir` and run `terraform init` to install providers normally.
3. Recreate the plugin cache: `terraform providers lock` then `terraform init`.
4. Fix permissions on the configured plugin directory.

Example fix

# before
 terraform validate -plugin-dir=/opt/tf-plugins

# after
 rm ~/.terraformrc   # or fix plugin_directory
 terraform init
 terraform validate

// Validate plugin_directory before validate.
if c.pluginPath != "" {
    if info, err := os.Stat(c.pluginPath); err != nil || !info.IsDir() {
        return fmt.Errorf("plugin_directory %s invalid: %w", c.pluginPath, err)
    }
}

if c.pluginPath, err = c.loadPluginPath(); err != nil {
    diags = diags.Append(fmt.Errorf("error loading plugin path: %s; remove plugin_directory from CLI config or fix path", err))
    return view.Results(diags)
}

When it happens

Trigger: `terraform validate` invoked with a configured plugin_directory that does not exist, is not a directory, is unreadable, or fails validation when Terraform scans its contents.

Common situations: Vendored plugin directory removed by `make clean` or git clean; CI image missing the plugin cache volume; ~/.terraformrc `plugin_directory` left over from a different machine; -plugin-dir passed with a typo.

Related errors

• error loading plugin path
• error loading plugin path
• failed to create stacks plugin stored path file
• failed to initialize stacksplugin cache directory
• failed to read stacks plugin stored path file

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/terraform@d32a084675 (2026-08-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/75a0c4a091be675b. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at internal/command/validate.go:79

	var varDiags tfdiags.Diagnostics
	c.VariableValues, varDiags = args.Vars.CollectValues(func(filename string, src []byte) {
		loader.Parser().ForceFileSource(filename, src)
	})
	if varDiags.HasErrors() {
		diags = diags.Append(varDiags)
		return view.Results(diags)
	}

	dir, err := filepath.Abs(args.Path)
	if err != nil {
		diags = diags.Append(fmt.Errorf("unable to locate module: %s", err))
		return view.Results(diags)
	}

	// Check for user-supplied plugin path
	if c.pluginPath, err = c.loadPluginPath(); err != nil {
		diags = diags.Append(fmt.Errorf("error loading plugin path: %s", err))
		return view.Results(diags)
	}

	validateDiags := c.validate(dir)
	diags = diags.Append(validateDiags)

	// Validating with dev overrides in effect means that the result might
	// not be valid for a stable release, so we'll warn about that in case
	// the user is trying to use "terraform validate" as a sort of pre-flight
	// check before submitting a change.
	diags = diags.Append(c.providerDevOverrideRuntimeWarnings())

	return view.Results(diags)
}

func (c *ValidateCommand) validate(dir string) tfdiags.Diagnostics {
	var diags tfdiags.Diagnostics
	var cfg *configs.Config

View on GitHub (pinned to d32a084675)