How to Destroy a Single Resource in Terraform

# Destroy one specific resource
terraform destroy -target=aws_instance.web
 
# Destroy a module instance
terraform destroy -target=module.app
 
# Destroy an indexed resource
terraform destroy -target='aws_subnet.private[0]'
terraform destroy -target='aws_subnet.private["us-east-1a"]'
 
# Preview first (plan)
terraform plan -destroy -target=aws_instance.web

# 1. Delete or comment out the resource block
# resource "aws_instance" "web" { ... }
 
# 2. Apply — Terraform destroys the removed resource
terraform apply

# Remove from state WITHOUT destroying the cloud resource
terraform state rm aws_instance.web
 
# The resource stays in AWS but Terraform forgets about it
# Use this when you want to stop managing a resource

# Terraform 1.4+: replace a resource (destroy old, create new)
terraform apply -replace=aws_instance.web
 
# Older versions: taint then apply
terraform taint aws_instance.web
terraform apply

# Tell Terraform to forget this resource without destroying it
removed {
  from = aws_instance.web
  lifecycle {
    destroy = false
  }
}

resource "aws_db_instance" "main" {
  # ...
 
  lifecycle {
    prevent_destroy = true  # terraform destroy will fail for this resource
  }
}

terraform destroy -target=aws_db_instance.main
# Error: Instance cannot be destroyed
# To override: remove prevent_destroy, then destroy