# OpenTofu

> The open-source Terraform fork used by Panfactum for infrastructure-as-code.

In late 2023, HashiCorp [announced a major update to its license](https://www.hashicorp.com/license-faq) for Terraform and its other previously open-source tools. This eliminated the ability for organizations to provide alternatives to HashiCorp's paid, hosted offerings when using Terraform.

As a result, many concerned parties came together to fork the last open-source Terraform release and create the first release of [OpenTofu](https://opentofu.org/) at the end of 2023. OpenTofu is a drop-in replacement for Terraform v1.6 (`tofu` vs `terraform`). However, as new releases emerge, the feature sets will begin to slowly diverge.

Key advantages over HashiCorp's Terraform:

- **Truly open-source**: Licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL 2.0)
- **Community-driven**: [Dozens of companies](https://opentofu.org/supporters/) have come together to sponsor the salaries of many full-time engineers to work on its development
- **More contributions**: Already receives more contributions and bugfixes than the original Terraform project
- **Drop-in replacement**: Fully compatible with Terraform v1.6 syntax and providers

OpenTofu will likely become the new industry-standard as organizations grapple with the license change in their next upgrade cycle.

**Panfactum uses OpenTofu exclusively.** All references to "terraform" in Panfactum documentation refer to OpenTofu unless otherwise specified.