`terraform -install-autocomplete` does not respect ZDOTDIR for zsh

[tkuhemiya]

Terraform Version

Terraform v1.14.8
on darwin_arm64

Terraform Configuration Files

Debug Output

➜  basics git:(main) TF_LOG=trace terraform -install-autocomplete
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [INFO]  Terraform version: 1.14.8
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [DEBUG] using github.com/hashicorp/go-tfe v1.94.0
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [DEBUG] using github.com/hashicorp/hcl/v2 v2.24.0
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [DEBUG] using github.com/hashicorp/terraform-svchost v0.1.1
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [DEBUG] using github.com/zclconf/go-cty v1.16.3
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [INFO]  Go runtime version: go1.25.8
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [INFO]  CLI args: []string{"terraform", "-install-autocomplete"}
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [TRACE] Stdout is a terminal of width 155
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [TRACE] Stderr is a terminal of width 155
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [TRACE] Stdin is a terminal
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [DEBUG] Attempting to open CLI config file: /Users/themiya/.terraformrc
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [DEBUG] File doesn't exist, but doesn't need to. Ignoring.
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [DEBUG] ignoring non-existing provider search directory terraform.d/plugins
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [DEBUG] ignoring non-existing provider search directory /Users/themiya/.terraform.d/plugins
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [DEBUG] ignoring non-existing provider search directory /Users/themiya/Library/Application Support/io.terraform/plugins
2026-04-03T23:34:03.659+0530 [DEBUG] ignoring non-existing provider search directory /Library/Application Support/io.terraform/plugins
2026-04-03T23:34:03.660+0530 [INFO]  CLI command args: []string{"-install-autocomplete"}
Error executing CLI: Did not find any shells to install

Expected Behavior

Terraform should detect zsh as the active shell and locate the
initialization file using $ZDOTDIR when it is set, falling back to
~/.zshrc otherwise.

Actual Behavior

Terraform reports "Did not find any shells to install" unless the ~/.zshrc file is present.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Set export ZDOTDIR="$HOME/.config/zsh" in environment
2. Place zsh config in $ZDOTDIR/.zshrc
3. Run terraform -install-autocomplete
4. Observe error: "Did not find any shells to install"

Additional Context

Environment:

• SHELL=/bin/zsh
• ZDOTDIR=$HOME/.config/zsh
• zsh version: zsh 5.9 (arm64-apple-darwin25.0)

References

• 'terraform -install-autocomplete' fails to respect zsh environment variable 'ZDOTDIR' #25704

Generative AI / LLM assisted development?

No response

[crw]

Thanks for this feature request! If you are viewing this issue and would like to indicate your interest, please use the 👍 reaction on the issue description to upvote this issue. We also welcome additional use case descriptions. Thanks again!