How to fix could not connect to registry.terraform.io in Terraform

Visit https://status.hashicorp.com/ to verify that registry.terraform.io is operational. If there's a reported outage, wait until it's resolved before continuing.

Try to manually access the registry using curl:

curl https://registry.terraform.io/.well-known/terraform.json

If this works but Terraform still fails, it's a Terraform-specific issue, not a network problem.

Test DNS resolution for registry.terraform.io:

nslookup registry.terraform.io
# or
dig registry.terraform.io

You should see a valid IP address returned. If not, DNS is the problem.

If DNS resolution is failing, try using a public DNS server:

# Temporarily use Google's DNS
sudo bash -c 'echo nameserver 8.8.8.8 > /etc/resolv.conf'

# Try terraform init again
terraform init

For permanent changes, update your system's DNS configuration (varies by OS).

If you're behind a corporate proxy, configure Terraform to use it:

export HTTP_PROXY=http://proxy-server:port
export HTTPS_PROXY=http://proxy-server:port
# Optional: if proxy requires authentication
export HTTP_PROXY=http://username:password@proxy-server:port

terraform init

Alternatively, create ~/.terraformrc with proxy settings.

If you're running Terraform older than 1.0.1, upgrade to fix DNS resolution issues:

terraform version  # Check current version

# Download and install latest: https://www.terraform.io/downloads

Versions prior to 1.0.1 had a cross-platform DNS client issue on macOS/Linux that could cause registry connection failures.

If your environment doesn't have internet access, configure Terraform to use a local mirror:

Create ~/.terraformrc:

provider_installation {
  filesystem_mirror {
    path    = "./terraform/providers"
    include = ["hashicorp/*"]
  }
  direct {
    exclude = ["hashicorp/*"]
  }
}

Then copy pre-downloaded providers to the filesystem_mirror directory.

After applying any fixes above, try again:

terraform init

If successful, you should see messages like 'Terraform has been successfully initialized!'