Cloud Parts

HCP Waypoint

HashiCorp’s hosted internal developer platform: developers create apps and add databases from templates that run Terraform modules in HCP Terraform.

What it is
Infrastructure as code,CI/CD pipelines
Type
Commercial product
Made by
HashiCorp, an IBM company
License
Proprietary SaaS (part of HCP, included with HCP Terraform Standard and Premium); the archived community Waypoint was MPL 2.0 up to its last release, 0.11.4
Facts checked
5 October 2026
Website

What it is

HCP Waypoint is a web portal and API on the HashiCorp Cloud Platform. It doesn’t provision anything itself: it drives HCP Terraform. Platform engineers publish Terraform modules as no-code modules in HCP Terraform’s private registry and register them in Waypoint as templates (a whole application, for example a GitHub repository with a CI workflow plus the cloud resources it deploys to) and add-on definitions (a database, a bucket, a cache). When a developer creates an application from a template, Waypoint uses a team token to create an HCP Terraform workspace from that module, sets the waypoint_application variable to the app’s name, and starts a run. The Terraform state, the run history and the cloud credentials all stay in HCP Terraform; Waypoint keeps the catalogue of templates, add-ons and applications. Installing an add-on later creates another workspace the same way, and the platform team can push template upgrades to existing applications.

For day-2 work, actions give developers buttons for operations the platform team defines. A custom action sends an HTTP request, with variables such as ${application.outputs.repo_name}, to an API such as GitHub’s or a CI system. An agent action runs on an HCP Waypoint agent, part of the HCP CLI (hcp waypoint agent run), inside your own network: it connects to HCP Waypoint over gRPC with TLS and runs commands, scripts, Docker containers or HTTP calls against private systems. This is a different product from the Waypoint HashiCorp released in 2020, an open-source CLI and self-hosted server that built, deployed and released apps. HashiCorp ended that community edition in October 2023, archived its repository in January 2024, and rebuilt Waypoint as a SaaS-only platform for platform teams.

Why teams pick it

  • Developers get a new service, with its repository and infrastructure, from a form, without writing Terraform or waiting on a ticket
  • Templates and add-ons are ordinary Terraform modules, so the platform team reuses its modules, HCP Terraform workspaces and state
  • Template upgrades can be pushed to the applications already created from that template
  • Actions put rollbacks, builds and feature flags behind one button, and agents reach systems in private or on-premises networks

Watch out for

  • SaaS only: there is no self-managed edition since the community edition ended, and every agent must authenticate to HCP
  • Not sold alone: it needs an HCP Terraform organization on the Standard edition or higher, for no-code modules and the private registry
  • It doesn’t build or deploy code itself; CI/CD stays in GitHub Actions or similar, and Waypoint only triggers it through actions
  • Agents receive every variable of the actions they run, sensitive ones decrypted, so the agent host is as sensitive as those secrets
  • Nothing carries over from community Waypoint: waypoint.hcl files and waypoint up workflows have no equivalent

Alternatives

What all infrastructure as code have in common →
AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK)AWSDefine AWS infrastructure in TypeScript, Python, Java, C# or Go; the CDK turns it into CloudFormation templates and CloudFormation deploys them.HashiCorp PackerCommercialBuilds machine images (AMIs, Azure and Google images, VMware, Docker) from one HCL template, so every server starts already configured.OpenTofuOpen sourceThe open-source fork of Terraform, created after HashiCorp’s 2023 licence change: same HCL, same providers, `tofu` instead of `terraform`.SSTOpen sourceA TypeScript framework that defines a whole app, from Next.js front end to functions, containers and databases, in one config file and deploys it to your own AWS or Cloudflare account.TerraformCommercialThe most widely used infrastructure-as-code tool: declare resources in HCL, review a plan, and apply it through provider plugins.

How it fits with other technologies

An agent configuration for actions that run inside your network · hcl

# agent.hcl, started with: hcp waypoint agent run --config=agent.hcl
# Each action block matches an agent action defined in HCP Waypoint.
group "prod-eu-west-1" {
  action "rollback-web" {
    run {
      command = "kubectl rollout undo deployment/web --to-revision=${var.revision}"
    }
  }

  action "flush-cache" {
    run {
      command = "redis-cli -h cache.internal FLUSHDB"
      docker {
        image = "redis:7"
      }
    }
  }

  action "health-check" {
    http {
      url = "http://web.internal/healthz"
    }
  }
}

From community Waypoint to HCP Waypoint#

The name stayed; the product changed. HashiCorp called the new design “a significant departure from the previous approach”.

Waypoint community edition (2020 to 2023)HCP Waypoint (today)
What it doesBuilds, deploys and releases an app from a waypoint.hcl file with one command, waypoint upA self-service portal: apps from templates, add-ons for supporting infrastructure, actions for day-2 operations
Who it servesDevelopers deploying their own appsPlatform teams defining golden patterns, and the developers who use them
Where it runsA self-hosted Waypoint server plus runners you operateSaaS on HCP, with optional agents in your network
How things get deployedPlugins for Docker, Buildpacks, Kubernetes, Nomad, ECS, Cloud Run, Azure Container Instances and EC2Terraform runs in HCP Terraform for infrastructure; your CI/CD for code, triggered by actions
ExtrasPublic waypoint.run URLs with TLS, live logs, waypoint execTemplate upgrades, HCP API and CLI, role-based access in HCP
Licence and statusMPL 2.0 for every release; archived January 8, 2024, read-only on GitHubProprietary; included with HCP Terraform Standard and Premium; maintained

The Terraform side of a template#

A template is a no-code module in HCP Terraform. It declares waypoint_application, which Waypoint fills in, and its outputs become variables that actions can use.

hcl
variable "waypoint_application" {
  type        = string
  description = "Set by HCP Waypoint to the application name"
}

resource "github_repository" "app" {
  name = var.waypoint_application
  template {
    owner      = "acme"
    repository = "service-template" # includes a GitHub Actions workflow
  }
}

output "repo_name" { # available to actions as ${application.outputs.repo_name}
  value = github_repository.app.full_name
}

See it in a real stack

No architecture uses HCP Waypoint yet. Drop it into the playground and wire it up yourself.Open playground →
Where it came from2020–2025

By 2020, shipping an app meant learning containers, schedulers, YAML files and serverless platforms, each with its own tool: Docker and kubectl for Kubernetes, Packer and Terraform for VMs, a separate CLI for each serverless platform. On October 15, 2020, Mitchell Hashimoto announced Waypoint, an open-source project that gave developers one workflow to build, deploy and release on any platform. A waypoint.hcl file described the app, waypoint up did all three steps, and every deployment got a public waypoint.run URL with a TLS certificate, plus logs and waypoint exec.

For many operators, setting up a reliable and secure Waypoint server was a barrier to even trying it, so in 2022 HashiCorp offered it as a managed service, HCP Waypoint, first as a private beta in June and a public beta in October, with runners on the customer’s own infrastructure. In October 2023 HashiCorp changed course: Waypoint would be re-architected as a SaaS-only product for platform teams, built on Terraform, and active development of the community edition ended. Its repository was archived in January 2024. HCP Waypoint, with templates and add-ons, became generally available in October 2024, and actions followed in June 2025.

Why it’s built this way

One workflow on top of existing platforms
Waypoint didn’t replace Kubernetes, Nomad or CI systems. Plugins handled each platform, so the same build, deploy and release steps worked whether an app ran on Kubernetes, ECS or Cloud Run.
A hosted server instead of a self-hosted one
Setting up a reliable, secure Waypoint server kept operators from trying Waypoint at all. HCP Waypoint took that work away, and the 2023 redesign went further and dropped the self-hosted edition.
Rebuild on Terraform no-code modules
For the 2023 redesign, HashiCorp moved the focus from deploying code to letting platform teams package infrastructure, dependencies and workflows. Terraform modules already described that infrastructure, so templates and add-ons reuse them.

Timeline

  1. 2020

    Waypoint 0.1 released as open source on October 15

  2. 2022

    HCP Waypoint private beta in June, public beta in October

  3. 2023

    HashiCorp ends the community edition in October and goes SaaS-only

  4. 2024

    Community repository archived in January; HCP Waypoint generally available in October

  5. 2025

    HCP Waypoint actions generally available in June

Sources20 · facts checked 5 October 2026

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