hashicorp/terraform · error

Error parsing %s: %s

Error message

Error parsing %s: %s

What it means

Emitted by `loadConfigFile` (cliconfig.go:167) when `hcl.Parse` fails on the contents of a CLI config file. This is an HCL syntax error in the file itself — the bytes were read successfully but do not form a valid HCL top-level structure. The `%s` values are the path and the HCL parser error.

Source

Thrown at internal/command/cliconfig/cliconfig.go:167

// loadConfigFile loads the CLI configuration from ".terraformrc" files.
func loadConfigFile(path string) (*Config, tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
	var diags tfdiags.Diagnostics
	result := &Config{}

	log.Printf("Loading CLI configuration from %s", path)

	// Read the HCL file and prepare for parsing
	d, err := ioutil.ReadFile(path)
	if err != nil {
		diags = diags.Append(fmt.Errorf("Error reading %s: %s", path, err))
		return result, diags
	}

	// Parse it
	obj, err := hcl.Parse(string(d))
	if err != nil {
		diags = diags.Append(fmt.Errorf("Error parsing %s: %s", path, err))
		return result, diags
	}

	// Build up the result
	if err := hcl.DecodeObject(&result, obj); err != nil {
		diags = diags.Append(fmt.Errorf("Error parsing %s: %s", path, err))
		return result, diags
	}

	// Deal with the provider_installation block, which is not handled using
	// DecodeObject because its structure is not compatible with the
	// limitations of that function.
	providerInstBlocks, moreDiags := decodeProviderInstallationFromConfig(obj)
	diags = diags.Append(moreDiags)
	result.ProviderInstallation = providerInstBlocks

	// Replace all env vars
	for k, v := range result.Providers {

View on GitHub (pinned to c9def3e214)

Solutions

1. Open the file named in the error and fix the HCL syntax at the line/column the parser reports.
2. Validate with an HCL linter or by running `terraform init` again to surface the precise location.
3. Compare against a known-good `.terraformrc` block structure (e.g. `credentials "app.terraform.io" { token = "..." }`).
4. If unsure, comment out suspect blocks with `#` and re-run.

Example fix

# before (~/.terraformrc)
credentials "app.terraform.io" {
  token = "atlasv1..."
# missing closing brace

# after
credentials "app.terraform.io" {
  token = "atlasv1..."
}

// Validate HCL syntax with the same parser the loader uses (best-effort).
import "github.com/hashicorp/hcl"

func configParses(path string) error {
    b, err := os.ReadFile(path)
    if err != nil {
        return err
    }
    _, err = hcl.Parse(string(b))
    return err
}

// cfg, diags := cliconfig.LoadConfig()
for _, d := range diags {
    if strings.HasPrefix(d.Description().Summary, "Error parsing") {
        // Point user to the line/col reported by HCL.
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: A `.terraformrc` (or `*.tfrc`) file containing malformed HCL: unclosed blocks, bad attribute syntax, stray characters, mismatched quotes/braces.

Common situations: Hand-editing the CLI config and leaving a typo; pasting JSON into an HCL file; truncation from a crashed editor; mixing tabs/spaces incorrectly in block headers.

Related errors

• Error reading %s: %s
• Cannot set both 'source' and 'content'
• Must provide one of 'source' or 'content'
• invalid null string in 'scripts'
• invalid empty string in 'scripts'

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/terraform@c9def3e214 (2026-08-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/93ec7cfb164bed72. Report an issue: GitHub.