testform plan

testform [global options] plan [options]

The testform plan command creates an execution plan. It evaluates your local .feature files against the current state file (testform.state) and remote infrastructure, calculating the exact set of actions required to bring remote issues into alignment with local code.

It is a speculative, read-only operation that does not make any mutations to remote resources.

Command Options

Option	Default	Description
-out=path	—	Writes the generated execution plan to a file. This plan can be passed to apply to guarantee identical execution.
-destroy	false	Generates a plan to destroy all managed resources rather than applying updates.
-refresh=false	true	Skips checking the remote API for out-of-band drift prior to planning.
-target=address	—	Limits planning to a single resource identity (e.g. login.case.feature.@tc-1). May be specified multiple times.
-json	false	Emits the plan in JSON format.
-detailed-exitcode	false	Returns detailed exit codes (0 = empty plan, 2 = changes present).

Diff Indicators

Actions are indicated by standard Terraform diff symbols:

• + create: Resource exists locally but has not yet been provisioned remotely.
• ~ update in-place: Resource exists remotely, but local attributes (title, steps, labels, fields) have changed.
• - destroy: Resource exists in state but has been deleted from code.
• -/+ replace: Resource is tainted or identity has fundamentally changed; will be destroyed and recreated.

Real Execution Example

$ testform plan

Testform used the selected Provider to generate the following execution plan.
Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:
  + create
  ~ update in-place
  - destroy

Testform will perform the following actions:

  # github.testcase.login.case.feature.@tc-1 will be updated in-place
  ~ resource "github_testcase" "login.case.feature.@tc-1" {
        id        = 104
      ~ labels    = ["login", "smoke"] -> ["login", "smoke", "high"]
      ~ milestone = "Sprint 41" -> "Sprint 42"
    }

  # github.testcase.checkout.case.feature.@tc-3 will be created
  + resource "github_testcase" "checkout.case.feature.@tc-3" {
      + title     = "Apply valid promotional coupon"
      + labels    = ["checkout", "promotions"]
      + state     = "open"
    }

Plan: 1 to add, 1 to change, 0 to destroy.

Best Practice: Saving Plans for CI/CD

In automated pipelines, always save the plan with -out and pass it to apply to avoid race conditions:

# In PR stage:
testform plan -out=testform.plan.bin

# In Merge stage:
testform apply testform.plan.bin

Exit Codes

When running with -detailed-exitcode:

• 0: Succeeded with empty diff (no changes).
• 1: Error occurred.
• 2: Succeeded with non-empty diff (changes are present).