hcl
What is a .hcl file?
text/x-hcl
HCL (HashiCorp Configuration Language) is the block-structured configuration language behind Terraform, Packer, Nomad, Consul, and Vault. A document is a sequence of attributes (`name = expression`) and blocks (a type, zero or more string labels, and a braced body), with support for heredocs, function calls, conditionals, and for-expressions. It is designed to be both hand-written and machine-generated, and has a documented JSON-equivalent syntax.
How to use a .hcl file
Use an example .hcl file to test HCL parsers, configuration linters, and JSON-syntax converters, exercising nested blocks with multiple labels, heredoc indentation, and comment styles (`#`, `//`, and `/* */`).
Download example .hcl files
- HCL2 Image Build DefinitionA generic HCL2 image-build definition exercising the grammar rather than any vendor schema: labelled blocks, a list variable, locals, an indent-stripping heredoc with an interpolation inside it, and a for expression producing a list.
- HCL2 Orchestrator Job DefinitionA deeply nested HCL2 job definition — job, group, task, service, check — with duration strings, a port mapping, and restart and update policies. Four levels of block nesting, which is where hand-rolled HCL readers usually break.
- HCL2 Policy DocumentA generic HCL2 policy document with three severity-graded rules, condition blocks using all_of / none_of / one_of, and a dated exemption. Grants nothing to anything; it exists so policy tooling has a realistic document to read.
- HCL2 Document, Intentionally InvalidAn intentionally invalid HCL2 document: an unclosed block, a colon assignment, a half-quoted block label, and a heredoc whose terminator is misspelled so it swallows the remainder of the file. Four documented faults, each a distinct recovery test.