1. image: What environment your pipeline runs in

image:
name:registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-build-images:terraform
entrypoint:
-'/usr/bin/env'
-'PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin'

What this means:

• GitLab runs each job inside a Docker container
• This container uses a Terraform-ready image provided by GitLab

Why this matters:

• Terraform is already installed → no setup needed
• Ensures consistent behavior across all pipeline runs

The entrypoint part:

• Overrides the default container entrypoint
• Explicitly sets the PATH so Terraform and other CLI tools are found correctly
• This avoids weird “command not found” issues

2. variables: Environment variables for Terraform & AWS

variables:
TF_VERSION:"1.5.0"
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID:${MY_AWS_KEY}
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY:${MY_AWS_ACCESS_KEY}
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION:"ap-south-1"

What’s happening here:

• You’re defining CI environment variables
• MY_AWS_KEY and MY_AWS_ACCESS_KEY are GitLab CI secrets
  • Stored securely in GitLab → CI/CD → Variables
  • Not hardcoded (good security practice 👍)

AWS variables:

Terraform uses these automatically to authenticate with AWS.