Pulumi has dramatically expanded its platform scope by announcing native support for HashiCorp Terraform and OpenTofu.
This strategic shift marks a significant departure for a company previously defined by its exclusive championing of general-purpose programming languages. The update introduces the ability to execute HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) directly through the Pulumi engine while hosting Terraform state within Pulumi Cloud.
These features, currently in private beta with general availability expected in Q1 2026, address the persistent challenge of migrating legacy code by allowing engineering teams to run existing projects alongside new deployments. The move specifically targets organisations unsettled by IBM’s acquisition of HashiCorp and related licensing changes, offering a unified platform that reduces the operational friction typically associated with switching infrastructure tools.
As referenced in the announcement, Joe Duffy, founder and CEO of Pulumi, acknowledged the reality of mixed-tool environments in modern enterprise infrastructure. He noted that while many organisations prefer modern approaches, they often retain years of investment in legacy tools. ‘We are not dogmatic about languages, we love all of them,’ Duffy stated. ‘The L in HCL and YAML stands for “language”, and we’ve always had a “come one, come all” mindset. As soon as we see enough market demand for a given language, we will add it. Well, that time has come for HCL.’
The technical implementation involves two distinct capabilities. First, Pulumi Cloud can now serve as a state backend and management plane for Terraform and OpenTofu, competing directly with HashiCorp Terraform Cloud. This integration provides visibility, governance, and access to Pulumi’s AI engineering agent, Neo, regardless of the underlying infrastructure tool.
Second, the Pulumi CLI now supports HCL as a first-class language. This allows the engine to interpret HCL code using a Terraform bridge to access providers. Unlike previous conversion tools that translated HCL into languages like TypeScript or Python, this feature allows teams to maintain HCL codebases while utilising Pulumi’s orchestration capabilities. This enables a polyglot architecture where platform teams might build complex components in Go or Python, which are then consumed by other teams using simple HCL modules.
The announcement clarifies that this capability is not a ‘bolt-on’ addition. Instead, it offers HCL users full access to the entirety of the Pulumi ecosystem, including thousands of providers, just like any other supported language.
To further incentivise migration, Pulumi introduced a financial ‘escape hatch’ programme. This initiative enables customers to apply credits equivalent to their remaining HashiCorp contract value towards Pulumi usage, aiming to alleviate the financial burden of running parallel systems during the transition period.
The infrastructure-as-code market remains highly competitive. HashiCorp Terraform remains the industry standard for declarative infrastructure, while the Linux Foundation’s OpenTofu has gained traction as an open-source alternative following HashiCorp’s shift to the Business Source License. Other competitors like Crossplane offer control-plane approaches to infrastructure management. By integrating HCL and Terraform state, Pulumi is positioning itself not just as an alternative but as a unifying platform that can manage competitive formats.
