Piggy-backing on the Terraform v1.15 announcement in 2026-05-27 office hours, the

convert

function pull request notes are worth reading. Pull request notes | Documentation There's more than meets the eye, such as being able to apply a specific type to empty HCL maps and lists (and to HCL

null

— as ridiculous as null and typed null are, in any language) and being able to "inject" default values into objects on-demand).