IntelliJ can't reliably format with OpenTofu

[csar398]

Hi, ultimate user here.
In IntelliJ, it is in principle possible to use Terraform or OpenTofu to format .tf files (as opposed to the built-in formatter).
You'd expect this to work out of the box provided you've set the executable paths under Settings > Tools > Terraform Tools.

Personally, I only have OpenTofu in my machine, have the executable's path set, and would expect IntelliJ to fall back to it when Terraform is unavailable. However, when reformatting code, I get the following error:

Terraform executable path error
Could not find Terraform executable at the specified path: 'terraform'

How can I get this to work reliably?

There's this funny trick where you can set the path to OpenTofu under the Terraform executable path: field (yes, that way around), and then the code formatter will work. But this will randomly unset. (Side remark: I wonder how this trick can work; can you just put the path to any binary with the necessary commands and have IntelliJ run the binary's fmt command to do wild things?)

[Nurullo (gulomkodirov)]

Hi! Thank you for your question.

There’s a similar issue where IntelliJ uses its built-in formatter instead of the formatter from the OpenTofu binary.
We’re planning to fix this in the 2026.1.X

For the future, even if it’s just a question, it’s better to create an issue in YouTrack so we can track it properly