A registry module named consul for the aws provider in the hashicorp namespace contains several submodules. A team needs only the submodule stored in the module's modules/consul-cluster directory. How should the module block's source reference it?

Terraform separates the package address from a subdirectory within it using a double slash. For a registry module, the package is the namespace, name and provider triple, and the path after the double slash selects a directory inside the downloaded package, so hashicorp/consul/aws followed by //modules/consul-cluster installs the whole module package and uses only that submodule. The version argument still applies to the package, so the submodule is pinned along with its parent. With a single slash, Terraform treats the extra segments as part of the registry address itself, which no longer matches the three-part format and fails to resolve. A query parameter named dir is not a Terraform subdirectory syntax; the double slash is the documented form for every source type, including Git and HTTP archives. Rewriting the module name as consul-cluster points at a different registry module that does not exist, and the path after it would select a directory that is not the intended submodule. Exam caveat: registries document submodules found under the modules directory of a module that follows the standard structure, so the registry page lists the available submodule paths. Operational check: run terraform init and confirm the module directory under .terraform/modules contains the whole package while the module call resolves to the consul-cluster subdirectory.