I'm considering an open source semester project that reads a Terraform state file, displays the infrastructure, and exports the diagram as an image. Would that be useful, and how could I justify it as a project?
Would a Terraform state visualizer be a useful semester project?
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Lixie
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It sounds like a reasonable semester project, but check out the existing options before pitching it as a new idea. Terraform already has a terraform graph command, and there are other visualization projects around.
You could still make a case for building it if you identify a specific gap, such as making a diagram easier to explore or export. Compare what your tool actually does with the existing command rather than assuming they take the same input or produce the same view.
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The interesting part might be interaction, not generating a graph in the first place. Terraform graph output can be turned into a more usable interactive page, including with help from a language model. A dedicated tool would need to offer a reason to use it instead of that workflow.
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For a class project, a useful comparison would be state versus configuration. Your proposed input is a state file, while someone can also ask a language model to make a diagram from a Terraform code repository. Look at what each approach can show and where its output might be misleading. That gives you something concrete to evaluate, even if the basic idea already exists.
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Lixie:
I hadn't come across terraform graph. I'll look into it before deciding on the scope.