What happens if I need to keep using a workspace that's scheduled for auto-destruction?

With inactivity-based destruction, running a new apply on the workspace resets the countdown timer. If you're using scheduled one-time destruction, you would need to modify or disable the auto-destroy settings before the scheduled time.

How much advance notice do I get before resources are automatically destroyed?

When email notifications are configured, Terraform Cloud sends alerts both 12 hours and 24 hours before the auto-destroy run executes, giving you time to intervene if needed.

Auto-Destroy Cloud Resources with Terraform Ephemeral Workspaces

Name: Auto-Destroy Cloud Resources with Terraform Ephemeral Workspaces
Uploaded: 2026-04-09T17:27:10-04:00
Duration: 3 min 4 s
Description: TL;DR Terraform Cloud ephemeral workspaces automatically destroy temporary cloud resources to prevent cost accumulation from forgotten infrastructure in dev, test, demo, or training environments. Two auto-destroy modes are available: schedule one-time ...

HashiCorp

04/09/2026

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Transcript

that you left some cloud resources running a lot longer than you meant to. Whether it's a dev test environment, maybe a demo for your sales team, or temporary classroom environments, this is a pretty common occurrence and something that can cost your organization a lot of money over time. In this video, I'll show you how ephemeral workspaces in TowerFrom Cloud can help you avoid this situation. Here, we have some development workspaces which probably don't need to be up and running all the time. Let's pick one. And here in the workspace settings, I'll go to the destruction and deletion menu. And here we can set up automatic destruction. There are two auto-destroy modes to choose from. You can schedule a one-time destruction at a given date and time, or you can choose to destroy based on inactivity. If there aren't any changes to this workspace in the configured time frame, the resources will be automatically destroyed. I'll set this workspace to automatically destroy after seven days of inactivity. Next, let's set up some notifications. Here on the workspace notification settings, I'll add a new email notification. And under the workspace events, I'll enable the auto-destroy reminder, which will send a notification 12 and 24 hours before the auto-destroy takes place, and also the auto-destroy results notification. Back on the workspace overview page, you can see the upcoming destruction is noted here in the workspace details. Now let's fast forward in time. Once the inactivity period has been reached, the auto-destroy run triggers automatically, and cleans up the resources in this workspace. Since I selected the inactivity-based destruction method, if I recreate these resources through a new apply run, the countdown will start over again. To learn more about how Terraform Cloud can help you control your cloud costs, check out the documentation and tutorials at developer.hashiCorp.com, and get started with your own free trial at hashiCorp.com slash cloud.

TL;DR

Terraform Cloud ephemeral workspaces automatically destroy temporary cloud resources to prevent cost accumulation from forgotten infrastructure in dev, test, demo, or training environments.
Two auto-destroy modes are available: schedule one-time destruction at a specific date/time, or configure inactivity-based destruction that triggers after a defined period without workspace changes.
Email notifications can be configured to send alerts 12 and 24 hours before auto-destroy runs, with inactivity-based destruction resetting the countdown when resources are recreated through new apply runs.

Summary

This demonstration walks through Terraform Cloud's ephemeral workspaces feature, designed to address the common problem of forgotten cloud resources that accumulate costs and security risks. The video shows how to configure automatic resource destruction using two methods: scheduled one-time deletion at a specific date and time, or inactivity-based destruction that triggers after a defined period without workspace changes. The presenter demonstrates setting up a seven-day inactivity threshold for a development workspace, configuring email notifications to alert users 12 and 24 hours before destruction, and shows the complete lifecycle from configuration through automatic cleanup. The feature eliminates manual cleanup tasks while helping organizations optimize cloud spending and improve developer productivity by ensuring temporary environments for development, testing, demos, and training don't persist beyond their useful life.

Chapters

0:00 - Introduction to Cloud Waste Problem
0:30 - Enable Auto-Destruction Settings
0:50 - Auto-Destroy Mode Options
1:17 - Configure Email Notifications
1:50 - View Auto-Destroy Status
2:08 - Auto-Destroy Execution Results
2:30 - Conclusion and Resources

Key Quotes

0:00 "If you're like me, you've probably felt the pain of realizing, way too late, that you left some cloud resources running a lot longer than you meant to."
0:18 "... this is a pretty common occurrence and something that can cost your organization a lot of money over time."
1:02 "If there aren't any changes to this workspace in the configured time frame, the resources will be automatically destroyed."

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