Question

You add an output block that references the private IP of an EC2 instance that will be created during the same apply. When you run 'terraform plan', the output value shows '(known after apply)' instead of an actual value. A teammate asks whether this indicates an error in your configuration. What is the correct explanation?

Accepted Answer

This is expected behavior; the attribute value cannot be determined until the resource is actually created during apply.

Answer

The output block is misconfigured and must include a 'default' argument to display a value during plan.

Answer

Terraform failed to refresh state, so you must run 'terraform refresh' before the value will appear in plan output.

Answer

The output requires an explicit 'depends_on' to force Terraform to compute the value during the plan phase.