Advanced Usage

Output Formats

tfsumpy supports three output formats, each designed for different use cases:

Console Output (Default)

tfsumpy plan.json

Color-coded, human-readable output in your terminal. Perfect for quick reviews and local development.

Markdown Output

tfsumpy plan.json --output markdown > plan_summary.md

Template-based Markdown output with: - Summary statistics - Resource changes - Detailed attribute changes (if enabled) - Timestamp and metadata

JSON Output

tfsumpy plan.json --output json > plan_summary.json

Structured JSON output with: - Metadata (timestamp, version) - Summary statistics - Resource changes - Detailed information (if enabled) - Analysis results (if available)

Using tfsumpy in CI/CD

Integrate tfsumpy into your CI pipeline to automatically summarize Terraform changes in pull requests or deployments:

# Example GitHub Actions step
- name: Summarize Terraform Plan
  run: |
    terraform plan -out=tfplan
    terraform show -json tfplan > plan.json
    tfsumpy plan.json --output markdown > plan_summary.md

Attach plan_summary.md to your PR or publish as a build artifact for easy review.

For Code Review

Generate a Markdown summary and paste it directly into your pull request description:

tfsumpy plan.json --output markdown > plan_summary.md
cat plan_summary.md

For Compliance Snapshots

Keep a record of planned infrastructure changes for audit or compliance:

# Markdown format
tfsumpy plan.json --output markdown > compliance/plan_$(date +%Y%m%d).md

# JSON format
tfsumpy plan.json --output json > compliance/plan_$(date +%Y%m%d).json

Debug Mode

For troubleshooting or detailed analysis:

tfsumpy plan.json --debug

This enables: - Verbose logging - Detailed error messages - Analysis process information

Command Line Options

Output Control

--output or -o: Choose output format (default, markdown, json)
--detailed: Show detailed resource information
--hide-changes: Hide detailed attribute changes

Deprecated Options

The following options are deprecated and will be removed in a future version: - --changes → Use --hide-changes=false instead - --details → Use --detailed instead - --markdown → Use --output markdown instead

Configuration

--config: Path to configuration file
--plugin-dir: Directory to load plugins from
--debug: Enable debug logging

Markdown Output (Beta)

You can generate a Markdown summary of your Terraform plan with:

tfsumpy plan.json --markdown > plan_summary.md

This will create a Markdown file with: - A summary section - Sections for created, updated, and destroyed resources - JSON code blocks for each resource change

For updates, both before and after states are shown. For creates and deletes, only the relevant state is shown.

Note: Markdown output is a beta feature. Please report any issues or suggestions!