Search Terraform modules and get provider details from the public registry via terraform-mcp-server (npx)

Recipe: Search Terraform modules and get provider details via terraform-mcp-server (npx)

Package: terraform-mcp-server v0.13.0 (npm) Transport: stdio via npx -y terraform-mcp-server Auth: none — queries the public Terraform Registry, no API keys Tools: 10 total — providerDetails, resourceUsage, moduleSearch, listDataSources, resourceArgumentDetails, moduleDetails, functionDetails, providerGuides, policySearch, policyDetails

1. Search Terraform Modules

// request
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"moduleSearch","arguments":{"query":"vpc","provider":"aws"}}}

// response (truncated)
{"status":"success","content":"## Module Recommendations for \"vpc\"\n\n### 1. terraform-aws-modules/vpc/aws\n**Description**: Terraform module to create AWS VPC resources\n**Downloads**: 190,789,014\n**Latest Version**: undefined\n\n```hcl\nmodule \"vpc\" {\n  source = \"terraform-aws-modules/vpc/aws\"\n}\n```\n\n### 2. ViktorUJ/vpc/aws\n**Downloads**: 8,991,074\n..."}

Returns ranked modules with download counts, descriptions, and HCL usage snippets.

2. Get Provider Details

// request
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"providerDetails","arguments":{"provider":"aws","namespace":"hashicorp"}}}

// response
"## hashicorp/aws Provider\n\n**Latest Version**: 6.50.0\n**Total Versions**: 492\n**Tier**: official\n**Downloads**: 6,519,863,118\n**Source**: https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-provider-aws\n**Protocols**: 5.0\n\n**Platform Support**: linux/amd64, darwin/amd64, windows/amd64, linux/arm64, darwin/arm64\n\n```hcl\nterraform {\n  required_providers {\n    aws = {\n      source = \"hashicorp/aws\"\n      version = \">= 6.50.0\"\n    }\n  }\n}\n```"

Returns version history, download stats, platform support, and ready-to-use HCL config.

Edge Case: resourceUsage for aws_s3_bucket

// request
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":3,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"resourceUsage","arguments":{"provider":"aws","resource":"aws_s3_bucket"}}}

// response
{"status":"error","error":"Documentation not found for resource aws_s3_bucket"}

resourceUsage fails silently on some common resources — it returns isError: false at the MCP level but status: error in the content. Agents must check the inner status field, not just isError.

Notes

• moduleSearch version field renders as "undefined" in the formatted output — a display bug, the actual version data is in the raw Algolia response
• First npx run installs ~50 packages; subsequent calls use cache
• No rate limiting observed for public registry queries
• Supports resources/subscribe capability for live updates