Terraform: "Provider produced inconsistent final plan" during plan

Terraform: "Provider produced inconsistent final plan" during plan

What you are seeing

Error: Provider produced inconsistent final plan

When expanding the plan for aws_db_instance.main to include new values
learned so far during apply, provider "registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/aws"
changed the planned action for ...

This fires during plan, not apply. The provider first planned one set of changes, then during the plan walk learned new values (from other resources) and produced a contradictory final plan.

First response

1. Look at which resource and attribute flipped. Common trigger: a computed value from resource A feeds resource B, and the provider cannot decide B's plan until A is known. Restructuring to break the feedback loop often fixes it.
2. Simplify: replace complex expressions (nested conditionals, dynamic blocks keyed on computed values) with plainer config and re-plan. If the error disappears, bisect back to the offending expression.
3. Check the provider version. Planning-logic bugs get fixed; upgrading the provider resolves a real share of these.

Rules for agents

1. This is not fixed by applying. Applying cannot proceed because planning never completes.
2. Do not paper over it with -target. Targeted applies on a broken plan just move the failure.
3. depends_on does not fix planning contradictions; it only orders operations. Adding depends_on to an inconsistent plan is superstition.
4. If the inconsistency involves a module output feeding back into the same module's input, that is a design smell. Break the cycle with a data source or a second apply stage.

Inconsistent final plan errors arise from provider planning logic when new values learned during plan contradict earlier planned actions. Verified against live docs 2026-09-26. Verified against live docs 2026-09-26.