Variable Collections

A variable collection is a named, reusable set of variables at the organization level that you can apply to any number of workspaces — similar to a "variable set" in other Terraform automation tools. Instead of copying the same provider config, tags, or environment variables into every workspace, define them once in a collection and attach it to whichever workspaces need it.

Manage collections from Organization Settings > Variable Collections.

Managing collections requires the Manage Collections permission. See Team Management.

A newly created variable collection, before any variables are added

Creating a collection

1. Click New collection, give it a name, an optional description, and a priority (see Resolution order below).

2. Optionally select workspaces under Apply to workspaces to attach the collection immediately — you can also attach or remove workspaces later.

3. Save the collection, then add variables to it.

Variables in a collection

Each item in a collection has the same shape as a regular workspace variable:

Field	Description
Key	Variable name
Value	Variable value
Category	Terraform (passed as a -var) or Environment (an env var for the run)
Sensitive	Hides the value after saving; cannot be retrieved once set
HCL	Whether the value should be parsed as HCL instead of a plain string
Description	Optional note

A collection with one environment variable added

Attaching a collection to workspaces

On the collection's edit page, the Apply to workspaces field under Variable collection scope picks which workspaces the collection applies to. Only the workspaces selected there receive the collection's variables — removing a workspace from this list detaches the collection without deleting the collection or its variables.

Resolution order

When a job runs, variables are resolved in this order, with earlier sources winning on key conflicts:

1. Workspace variables — set directly on the workspace

2. Organization global variables — see Global Variables

3. Variable collections — applied to the workspace, highest priority first; if two collections both define the same key, the one with the higher priority number wins

A variable collection can never override a workspace-level or global variable with the same key — it only fills in keys that aren't already set. Use priority to control conflicts between collections, not between a collection and the workspace itself.