opentf/website/docs/cli/commands/apply.mdx

---
page_title: 'Command: apply'
description: >-
  The opentf apply command executes the actions proposed in a OpenTF plan
  to create, update, or destroy infrastructure.
---

# Command: apply

The `opentf apply` command executes the actions proposed in a OpenTF
plan.

## Usage

Usage: `opentf apply [options] [plan file]`



### Automatic Plan Mode

When you run `opentf apply` without passing a saved plan file, OpenTF automatically creates a new execution plan as if you had run [`opentf plan`](/opentf/cli/commands/plan), prompts you to approve that plan, and takes the indicated actions. You can use all of the [planning modes](/opentf/cli/commands/plan#planning-modes) and
[planning options](/opentf/cli/commands/plan#planning-options) to customize how OpenTF will create the plan.

You can pass the `-auto-approve` option to instruct OpenTF to apply the plan without asking for confirmation.

!> **Warning:** If you use `-auto-approve`, we recommend making sure that no one can change your infrastructure outside of your OpenTF workflow. This minimizes the risk of unpredictable changes and configuration drift.

### Saved Plan Mode

When you pass a [saved plan file](/opentf/cli/commands/plan#out-filename) to `opentf apply`, OpenTF takes the actions in the saved plan without prompting you for confirmation. You may want to use this two-step workflow when running OpenTF in automation.

Use [`opentf show`](/opentf/cli/commands/show) to inspect a saved plan file before applying it.

When using a saved plan, you cannot specify any additional planning modes or options. These options only affect OpenTF's decisions about which
actions to take, and the plan file contains the final results of those
decisions.

### Plan Options

Without a saved plan file, `opentf apply` supports all planning modes and planning options available for `opentf plan`.

-  **[Planning Modes](/opentf/cli/commands/plan#planning-modes):** These include `-destroy`, which creates a plan to destroy all remote objects, and `-refresh-only`, which creates a plan to update OpenTF state and root module output values.
- **[Planning Options](/opentf/cli/commands/plan#planning-options):** These include specifying which resource instances OpenTF should replace, setting OpenTF input variables, etc.

### Apply Options

The following options change how the apply command executes and reports on the apply operation.

- `-auto-approve` - Skips interactive approval of plan before applying. This
  option is ignored when you pass a previously-saved plan file, because
  OpenTF considers you passing the plan file as the approval and so
  will never prompt in that case.

- `-compact-warnings` - Shows any warning messages in a compact form which
  includes only the summary messages, unless the warnings are accompanied by
  at least one error and thus the warning text might be useful context for
  the errors.

- `-input=false` - Disables all of OpenTF's interactive prompts. Note that
  this also prevents OpenTF from prompting for interactive approval of a
  plan, so OpenTF will conservatively assume that you do not wish to
  apply the plan, causing the operation to fail.

- `-json` - Enables the [machine readable JSON UI][machine-readable-ui] output.
  This implies `-input=false`, so the configuration must have no unassigned
  variable values to continue. To enable this flag, you must also either enable
  the `-auto-approve` flag or specify a previously-saved plan.

  [machine-readable-ui]: /opentf/internals/machine-readable-ui

- `-lock=false` - Don't hold a state lock during the operation. This is
  dangerous if others might concurrently run commands against the same
  workspace.

- `-lock-timeout=DURATION` - Unless locking is disabled with `-lock=false`,
  instructs OpenTF to retry acquiring a lock for a period of time before
  returning an error. The duration syntax is a number followed by a time
  unit letter, such as "3s" for three seconds.

- `-no-color` - Disables terminal formatting sequences in the output. Use this
  if you are running OpenTF in a context where its output will be
  rendered by a system that cannot interpret terminal formatting.

- `-parallelism=n` - Limit the number of concurrent operation as OpenTF
  [walks the graph](/opentf/internals/graph#walking-the-graph). Defaults to
  10\.

- All [planning modes](/opentf/cli/commands/plan#planning-modes) and
[planning options](/opentf/cli/commands/plan#planning-options) for
`opentf plan` - Customize how OpenTF will create the plan. Only available when you run `opentf apply` without a saved plan file.

For configurations using
[the `local` backend](/opentf/language/settings/backends/local) only,
`opentf apply` also accepts the legacy options
[`-state`, `-state-out`, and `-backup`](/opentf/language/settings/backends/local#command-line-arguments).

## Passing a Different Configuration Directory

If your workflow relies on overriding the root module directory, use
[the `-chdir` global option](/opentf/cli/commands#switching-working-directory-with-chdir)
instead, which works across all commands and makes OpenTF consistently look
in the given directory for all files it would normally read or write in the
current working directory.