False positive validation error in .tfvars with complex object structures

[steveoh]

Extension Version

v2.34.5

VS Code Version

Version: 1.101.2
Commit: 2901c5ac6db8a986a5666c3af51ff804d05af0d4
Date: 2025-06-24T20:27:15.391Z
Electron: 35.5.1
ElectronBuildId: 11727614
Chromium: 134.0.6998.205
Node.js: 22.15.1
V8: 13.4.114.21-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.5.0

Operating System

macOS

Terraform Version

Terraform v1.12.2 on darwin_arm64 + provider registry.terraform.io/integrations/github v6.6.0

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a variables.tf with a complex object variable definition
2. Create a terraform.tfvars file with values for that variable
3. Notice red squiggly lines in the .tfvars file
4. Run terraform validate - it passes successfully

Expected Behavior

No validation errors should be shown when the Terraform configuration is valid.

Actual Behavior

Unexpected attribute is not expected here

Red squiggly lines appear on valid .tfvars content.

Terraform Configuration

variable "standard_releases" {
  description = "A list of GitHub repositories that use our standard release process"
  type = set(object({
    name                   = string
    description            = string
    url                    = optional(string, "")
    topics                 = optional(list(string), [])
    primary_language       = string
    required_checks        = optional(set(string), [])
    is_template_repository = optional(bool, false)
    private                = optional(bool, false)
    template_repository    = optional(string, "")
    needs_wiki             = optional(bool, false)
    needs_pages            = optional(bool, false)
    needs_projects         = optional(bool, false)
    staff_permission       = optional(string, "pull")
    maintainers            = optional(list(string), [])
    collaborators          = optional(list(string), [])
    triagers               = optional(list(string), [])
    team_triage            = optional(list(string), [])
  }))
  default = []
}

Project Structure

Gist

No response

Anything Else?

No response

Workarounds

No response

References

No response

Help Wanted

• I'm interested in contributing a fix myself

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[lancecmalibu]

I am having the same issue as steveoh.

Extension Version

v2.34.2025012311

VS Code Version

Version: 1.101.2
Commit 2901c5ac6db8a986a5666c3af51ff804d05af0d4

Operating System

macOS

Terraform Version

Terraform v1.12.2
on darwin_arm64
provider registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/archive v2.7.1
provider registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/aws v6.2.0
provider registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/random v3.7.2
provider registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/tfe v0.67.1
provider registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/time v0.12.1

Error Messages

VS Code 'Problems'

[{
	"resource": "/Terraform/Projects/ORG_IaC/Workspaces/Core/Bootstrap.Core/accounts.auto.tfvars",
	"owner": "HashiCorpTerraform",
	"severity": 8,
	"message": "Unexpected attribute: An attribute named \"aws_accounts\" is not expected here",
	"source": "Terraform",
	"startLineNumber": 2,
	"startColumn": 1,
	"endLineNumber": 9,
	"endColumn": 2
},{
	"resource": "/Terraform/Projects/ORG_IaC/Workspaces/Core/Bootstrap.Core/accounts.auto.tfvars",
	"owner": "HashiCorpTerraform",
	"severity": 8,
	"message": "Unexpected attribute: An attribute named \"create_oidc_provider\" is not expected here",
	"source": "Terraform",
	"startLineNumber": 10,
	"startColumn": 1,
	"endLineNumber": 12,
	"endColumn": 2
},{
	"resource": "/Terraform/Projects/ORG_IaC/Workspaces/Core/Bootstrap.Core/accounts.auto.tfvars",
	"owner": "HashiCorpTerraform",
	"severity": 8,
	"message": "Unexpected attribute: An attribute named \"project_name\" is not expected here",
	"source": "Terraform",
	"startLineNumber": 14,
	"startColumn": 1,
	"endLineNumber": 14,
	"endColumn": 25
},{
	"resource": "/Terraform/Projects/ORG_IaC/Workspaces/Core/Bootstrap.Core/accounts.auto.tfvars",
	"owner": "HashiCorpTerraform",
	"severity": 8,
	"message": "Unexpected attribute: An attribute named \"organization_name\" is not expected here",
	"source": "Terraform",
	"startLineNumber": 15,
	"startColumn": 1,
	"endLineNumber": 15,
	"endColumn": 34
},{
	"resource": "/Terraform/Projects/ORG_IaC/Workspaces/Core/Bootstrap.Core/accounts.auto.tfvars",
	"owner": "HashiCorpTerraform",
	"severity": 8,
	"message": "Unexpected attribute: An attribute named \"environment\" is not expected here",
	"source": "Terraform",
	"startLineNumber": 16,
	"startColumn": 1,
	"endLineNumber": 16,
	"endColumn": 20
}]

Terraform-ls Error

{
  "uri": "file:///Terraform/Projects/ORG_IaC/Workspaces/Core/Bootstrap.Core/accounts.auto.tfvars",
  "diagnostics": [
    {
      "range": {
        "start": {
          "line": 1,
          "character": 0
        },
        "end": {
          "line": 9,
          "character": 1
        }
      },
      "severity": 1,
      "source": "Terraform",
      "message": "Unexpected attribute: An attribute named \"aws_accounts\" is not expected here"
    },
    {
      "range": {
        "start": {
          "line": 10,
          "character": 0
        },
        "end": {
          "line": 12,
          "character": 1
        }
      },
      "severity": 1,
      "source": "Terraform",
      "message": "Unexpected attribute: An attribute named \"create_oidc_provider\" is not expected here"
    },
    {
      "range": {
        "start": {
          "line": 14,
          "character": 0
        },
        "end": {
          "line": 14,
          "character": 24
        }
      },
      "severity": 1,
      "source": "Terraform",
      "message": "Unexpected attribute: An attribute named \"project_name\" is not expected here"
    },
    {
      "range": {
        "start": {
          "line": 15,
          "character": 0
        },
        "end": {
          "line": 15,
          "character": 33
        }
      },
      "severity": 1,
      "source": "Terraform",
      "message": "Unexpected attribute: An attribute named \"organization_name\" is not expected here"
    },
    {
      "range": {
        "start": {
          "line": 16,
          "character": 0
        },
        "end": {
          "line": 16,
          "character": 19
        }
      },
      "severity": 1,
      "source": "Terraform",
      "message": "Unexpected attribute: An attribute named \"environment\" is not expected here"
    }
  ]
}

Terraform Configuration

variables.tf

variable "environment" {
  description = "The environment for which this configuration is applied"
  type        = string
}

variable "organization_name" {
  description = "The name of the organization in Terraform Cloud"
  type        = string
}

variable "project_name" {
  description = "The name of the project in Terraform Cloud"
  type        = string
}

variable "aws_accounts" {
  description = "List of AWS account keys to be used in this project"
  type        = set(string)
}

variable "create_oidc_provider" {
  description = "List of AWS account keys that should create a new OIDC provider"
  type        = set(string)
  default     = []
}

accounts.auto.tfvars

aws_accounts = [
  "ORG_MASTER",
  "ORG_DEV_EXT",
  "ORG_DEV_INT",
  "ORG_PRD_EXT",
  "ORG_PRD_INT",
]
create_oidc_provider = [
  "ORG_MASTER"
]
#
project_name = "ORG_IaC"
organization_name = "ORGName"
environment = "DEV"

Notes

I don't really use .tfvars files much in general since all my projects are in Terraform Cloud. As such, I haven't tested if this is a problem with the structure of this repo or if it's just this specific directory or what. It is a very large repo with many directories and files though.