Is it true that Terraform can only manage resource dependencies if you set them explicitly with the depends_on argument?

Terraform is designed to automatically manage dependencies among resources based on the configurations you define. It analyzes your resource definitions and constructs a dependency graph that determines the order in which resources need to be created, updated, or destroyed. By leveraging the input and outputs of each resource, Terraform can infer dependencies without requiring you to explicitly specify them using the depends_on argument in most cases.

While the depends_on argument can be useful when you want to enforce a specific order of resource creation or handling edge cases where Terraform’s built-in dependency management might not capture your desired sequence, it is not a requirement for dependency management to take place. This means that even if you don’t use depends_on, Terraform is capable of managing dependencies effectively, making the assertion that it can only do so when dependencies are set explicitly inaccurate.

Understanding this allows users to rely on Terraform's efficiency and automatic handling of dependencies in typical scenarios, creating a more streamlined and less error-prone infrastructure as code experience.