# Managing Terraform infra in Cortex
Cortex Workflows can trigger Terraform execution to manage your cloud infrastructure, such as provisioning new services, databases, buckets, or networking primitives.
[Terraform](https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/intro) is an infrastructure-as-code tool that lets you provision, manage, and update infrastructure. Terraform can help you manage databases, s3 buckets, clusters, and every other component that comprises your infra. Terraform’s ability to manage resources comes from **providers**, which are plugins that enable interaction with cloud providers, SaaS providers, and other APIs. Providers allow you to define as code what a resource looks like.
The instructions on this page apply to [Terraform Cloud](https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/tutorials/cloud-get-started/cloud-sign-up), the web-based interface for Terraform.
{% hint style="info" %}
Cortex integrates with Terraform in two different ways, depending on whether you want to manage Cortex resources using Terraform or use Cortex to drive Terraform runs for your infrastructure.
To learn about managing Cortex resources using Terraform, see [Manage entities using Cortex Terraform Provider](/ingesting-data-into-cortex/entities-overview/entities/terraform/terraform-provider.md).
{% endhint %}
## How to manage Terraform infrastructure in Cortex
{% hint style="success" %}
See end-to-end examples for [using a Workflow to provision an EC2 instance with Terraform](https://github.com/cortexapps/hippocampus/blob/master/ingesting-data-into-cortex/entities/broken-reference/README.md), [using a Workflow to update the EC2 instance](https://github.com/cortexapps/hippocampus/blob/master/ingesting-data-into-cortex/entities/broken-reference/README.md), and [using a Workflow to destroy a resource](https://github.com/cortexapps/hippocampus/blob/master/ingesting-data-into-cortex/entities/broken-reference/README.md).
{% endhint %}
### Prerequisite
Expand the tile below for instructions on provisioning a new instance.
Provision a new instance and update the instance name
* Provision a new instance
* Terraform will automatically provide you with a starter workspace when you begin — our example workspace is named **"tfc-guide-example"**.
* Update the instance name in the Terraform `variables.tf` file.
* All Terraform modules come with a file called `variables.tf`. As part of the Terraform script, we can enter variables for a given set, like region or instance type. In the example screen shot below, the variable name is "My Other Great Instance".
* Note: Terraform modules also come with a `main.tf` file, which contains instructions and information about the action. In our example, the `main.tf` file describes the instance that we’re going to create through Terraform.
{% hint style="info" %}
Terraform stores a “state” about your infrastructure and configuration when it’s deployed. State maps resources to this configuration, and will update any time variables or properties are changed.
{% endhint %}
### Step 1: Confirm your instance name update in Terraform
In Terraform Cloud, navigate to the **Run** page. Verify that the changes you made to the instance name in `variables.tf` have applied.
Verify the process
To verify that the process worked, open Terraform Cloud and navigate to **Runs**.
Any runs that originate from Cortex will have `[Cortex Scaffolder]` at the start of their name. Click into one of these runs to see its status and how many changes were proposed.
## Execute a run via a Workflow
Terraform Cloud also has an API that can be used to make updates without following the pull request workflow. You can use a [Workflow](/streamline/workflows.md) in Cortex to execute a run through the API. If a run is set to automatically apply, then Cortex will handle the rest of the process.
1. [Create a Workflow](/streamline/workflows.md) in Cortex.
2. Add a [user input](/streamline/workflows.md#user-input) block.
1. Define inputs for `Instance name`, `Region`, and `Instance type`.
3. Add an [HTTP request](/streamline/workflows.md#http-request) block. Configure the following fields:
1. **HTTP method**: Select `POST`.
2. **URL**: Enter the URL for the Terraform API you want to call.
3. **Headers**: Add `Authorization: Bearer {{token}}` and `Content-type: application/(name)`.
4. **Payload**: Build the payload by referencing the outputs of the "User input" block, e.g., `{{actions.input.outputs.instance-name}}`
4. Save the Workflow. After saving, click **Run** at the top of the Workflow to run it.
When the Workflow is run in Cortex, it will override data in the `variables.tf` file with information that was entered in the fields.
#### Verify the run
Verify that the action was successful
In Terraform Cloud, you can verify that the action was successful and the run was queued. Runs triggered by actions are named "Triggered via API."
Once the run has been applied, you can also verify it in AWS. In the example screen shot below, the instance name has been changed:
## Terraform Workflow examples
See guides on creating the following Workflows: [Provision EC2 instance with Terraform](/guides/production-readiness/terraform/provision.md), [Update EC2 instance](/guides/production-readiness/terraform/update.md), and [Terraform destroy](/guides/production-readiness/terraform/destroy.md).
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