diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 61db09817..0a6bfbca0 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -123,7 +123,8 @@ require (
 	golang.org/x/mod v0.3.0
 	golang.org/x/net v0.0.0-20201021035429-f5854403a974
 	golang.org/x/oauth2 v0.0.0-20200902213428-5d25da1a8d43
-	golang.org/x/sys v0.0.0-20200930185726-fdedc70b468f
+	golang.org/x/sys v0.0.0-20201119102817-f84b799fce68
+	golang.org/x/term v0.0.0-20201210144234-2321bbc49cbf
 	golang.org/x/text v0.3.3
 	golang.org/x/tools v0.0.0-20201028111035-eafbe7b904eb
 	google.golang.org/api v0.34.0
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index 18f43e3dd..650efa501 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -746,6 +746,10 @@ golang.org/x/sys v0.0.0-20200803210538-64077c9b5642/go.mod h1:h1NjWce9XRLGQEsW7w
 golang.org/x/sys v0.0.0-20200905004654-be1d3432aa8f/go.mod h1:h1NjWce9XRLGQEsW7wpKNCjG9DtNlClVuFLEZdDNbEs=
 golang.org/x/sys v0.0.0-20200930185726-fdedc70b468f h1:+Nyd8tzPX9R7BWHguqsrbFdRx3WQ/1ib8I44HXV5yTA=
 golang.org/x/sys v0.0.0-20200930185726-fdedc70b468f/go.mod h1:h1NjWce9XRLGQEsW7wpKNCjG9DtNlClVuFLEZdDNbEs=
+golang.org/x/sys v0.0.0-20201119102817-f84b799fce68 h1:nxC68pudNYkKU6jWhgrqdreuFiOQWj1Fs7T3VrH4Pjw=
+golang.org/x/sys v0.0.0-20201119102817-f84b799fce68/go.mod h1:h1NjWce9XRLGQEsW7wpKNCjG9DtNlClVuFLEZdDNbEs=
+golang.org/x/term v0.0.0-20201210144234-2321bbc49cbf h1:MZ2shdL+ZM/XzY3ZGOnh4Nlpnxz5GSOhOmtHo3iPU6M=
+golang.org/x/term v0.0.0-20201210144234-2321bbc49cbf/go.mod h1:bj7SfCRtBDWHUb9snDiAeCFNEtKQo2Wmx5Cou7ajbmo=
 golang.org/x/text v0.0.0-20160726164857-2910a502d2bf/go.mod h1:NqM8EUOU14njkJ3fqMW+pc6Ldnwhi/IjpwHt7yyuwOQ=
 golang.org/x/text v0.0.0-20170915032832-14c0d48ead0c/go.mod h1:NqM8EUOU14njkJ3fqMW+pc6Ldnwhi/IjpwHt7yyuwOQ=
 golang.org/x/text v0.3.0/go.mod h1:NqM8EUOU14njkJ3fqMW+pc6Ldnwhi/IjpwHt7yyuwOQ=
diff --git a/internal/terminal/impl_others.go b/internal/terminal/impl_others.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fc819aee6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/terminal/impl_others.go
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+// +build !windows
+
+package terminal
+
+import (
+	"os"
+
+	"golang.org/x/term"
+)
+
+// This is the implementation for all operating systems except Windows, where
+// we don't expect to need to do any special initialization to get a working
+// Virtual Terminal.
+//
+// For this implementation we just delegate everything upstream to
+// golang.org/x/term, since it already has a variety of different
+// implementations for quirks of more esoteric operating systems like plan9,
+// and will hopefully grow to include others as Go is ported to other platforms
+// in future.
+//
+// For operating systems that golang.org/x/term doesn't support either, it
+// defaults to indicating that nothing is a terminal and returns an error when
+// asked for a size, which we'll handle below.
+
+func configureOutputHandle(f *os.File) (*OutputStream, error) {
+	return &OutputStream{
+		File:       f,
+		isTerminal: isTerminalGolangXTerm,
+		getColumns: getColumnsGolangXTerm,
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func configureInputHandle(f *os.File) (*InputStream, error) {
+	return &InputStream{
+		File:       f,
+		isTerminal: isTerminalGolangXTerm,
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func isTerminalGolangXTerm(f *os.File) bool {
+	return term.IsTerminal(int(f.Fd()))
+}
+
+func getColumnsGolangXTerm(f *os.File) int {
+	width, _, err := term.GetSize(int(f.Fd()))
+	if err != nil {
+		// Suggests that it's either not a terminal at all or that we're on
+		// a platform that golang.org/x/term doesn't support. In both cases
+		// we'll just return the placeholder default value.
+		return defaultColumns
+	}
+	return width
+}
diff --git a/internal/terminal/impl_windows.go b/internal/terminal/impl_windows.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f6aaa78b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/terminal/impl_windows.go
@@ -0,0 +1,161 @@
+// +build windows
+
+package terminal
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"syscall"
+
+	"golang.org/x/sys/windows"
+
+	// We're continuing to use this third-party library on Windows because it
+	// has the additional IsCygwinTerminal function, which includes some useful
+	// heuristics for recognizing when a pipe seems to be connected to a
+	// legacy terminal emulator on Windows versions that lack true pty support.
+	// We now use golang.org/x/term's functionality on other platforms.
+	isatty "github.com/mattn/go-isatty"
+)
+
+func configureOutputHandle(f *os.File) (*OutputStream, error) {
+	ret := &OutputStream{
+		File: f,
+	}
+
+	if fd := f.Fd(); isatty.IsTerminal(fd) {
+		// We have a few things to deal with here:
+		// - Activating UTF-8 output support (mandatory)
+		// - Activating virtual terminal support (optional)
+		// These will not succeed on Windows 8 or early versions of Windows 10.
+
+		// UTF-8 support means switching the console "code page" to CP_UTF8.
+		// Notice that this doesn't take the specific file descriptor, because
+		// the console is just ambiently associated with our process.
+		err := SetConsoleOutputCP(CP_UTF8)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to set the console to UTF-8 mode; you may need to use a newer version of Windows: %s", err)
+		}
+
+		// If the console also allows us to turn on
+		// ENABLE_VIRTUAL_TERMINAL_PROCESSING then we can potentially use VT
+		// output, although the methods of Settings will make the final
+		// determination on that because we might have some handles pointing at
+		// terminals and other handles pointing at files/pipes.
+		ret.getColumns = getColumnsWindowsConsole
+		var mode uint32
+		err = windows.GetConsoleMode(windows.Handle(fd), &mode)
+		if err != nil {
+			return ret, nil // We'll treat this as success but without VT support
+		}
+		mode |= windows.ENABLE_VIRTUAL_TERMINAL_PROCESSING
+		err = windows.SetConsoleMode(windows.Handle(fd), mode)
+		if err != nil {
+			return ret, nil // We'll treat this as success but without VT support
+		}
+
+		// If we get here then we've successfully turned on VT processing, so
+		// we can return an OutputStream that answers true when asked if it
+		// is a Terminal.
+		ret.isTerminal = staticTrue
+		return ret, nil
+
+	} else if isatty.IsCygwinTerminal(fd) {
+		// Cygwin terminals -- and other VT100 "fakers" for older versions of
+		// Windows -- are not really terminals in the usual sense, but rather
+		// are pipes between the child process (Terraform) and the terminal
+		// emulator. isatty.IsCygwinTerminal uses some heuristics to
+		// distinguish those pipes from other pipes we might see if the user
+		// were, for example, using the | operator on the command line.
+		// If we get in here then we'll assume that we can send VT100 sequences
+		// to this stream, even though it isn't a terminal in the usual sense.
+
+		ret.isTerminal = staticTrue
+		// TODO: Is it possible to detect the width of these fake terminals?
+		return ret, nil
+	}
+
+	// If we fall out here then we have a non-terminal filehandle, so we'll
+	// just accept all of the default OutputStream behaviors
+	return ret, nil
+}
+
+func configureInputHandle(f *os.File) (*InputStream, error) {
+	ret := &InputStream{
+		File: f,
+	}
+
+	if fd := f.Fd(); isatty.IsTerminal(fd) {
+		// We have to activate UTF-8 input, or else we fail. This will not
+		// succeed on Windows 8 or early versions of Windows 10.
+		// Notice that this doesn't take the specific file descriptor, because
+		// the console is just ambiently associated with our process.
+		err := SetConsoleCP(CP_UTF8)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to set the console to UTF-8 mode; you may need to use a newer version of Windows: %s", err)
+		}
+		ret.isTerminal = staticTrue
+		return ret, nil
+	} else if isatty.IsCygwinTerminal(fd) {
+		// As with the output handles above, we'll use isatty's heuristic to
+		// pretend that a pipe from mintty or a similar userspace terminal
+		// emulator is actually a terminal.
+		ret.isTerminal = staticTrue
+		return ret, nil
+	}
+
+	// If we fall out here then we have a non-terminal filehandle, so we'll
+	// just accept all of the default InputStream behaviors
+	return ret, nil
+}
+
+func getColumnsWindowsConsole(f *os.File) int {
+	// We'll just unconditionally ask the given file for its console buffer
+	// info here, and let it fail if the file isn't actually a console.
+	// (In practice, the init functions above only hook up this function
+	// if the handle looks like a console, so this should succeed.)
+	var info windows.ConsoleScreenBufferInfo
+	err := windows.GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo(windows.Handle(f.Fd()), &info)
+	if err != nil {
+		return defaultColumns
+	}
+	return int(info.Size.X)
+}
+
+// Unfortunately not all of the Windows kernel functions we need are in
+// x/sys/windows at the time of writing, so we need to call some of them
+// directly. (If you're maintaining this in future and have the capacity to
+// test it well, consider checking if these functions have been added upstream
+// yet and switch to their wrapper stubs if so.
+var modkernel32 = windows.NewLazySystemDLL("kernel32.dll")
+var procSetConsoleCP = modkernel32.NewProc("SetConsoleCP")
+var procSetConsoleOutputCP = modkernel32.NewProc("SetConsoleOutputCP")
+
+const CP_UTF8 = 65001
+
+// (These are written in the style of the stubs in x/sys/windows, which is
+// a little non-idiomatic just due to the awkwardness of the low-level syscall
+// interface.)
+
+func SetConsoleCP(codepageID uint32) (err error) {
+	r1, _, e1 := syscall.Syscall(procSetConsoleCP.Addr(), 1, uintptr(codepageID), 0, 0)
+	if r1 == 0 {
+		err = e1
+	}
+	return
+}
+
+func SetConsoleOutputCP(codepageID uint32) (err error) {
+	r1, _, e1 := syscall.Syscall(procSetConsoleOutputCP.Addr(), 1, uintptr(codepageID), 0, 0)
+	if r1 == 0 {
+		err = e1
+	}
+	return
+}
+
+func staticTrue(f *os.File) bool {
+	return true
+}
+
+func staticFalse(f *os.File) bool {
+	return false
+}
diff --git a/internal/terminal/panicwrap_ugh.go b/internal/terminal/panicwrap_ugh.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b17165b2c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/terminal/panicwrap_ugh.go
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+package terminal
+
+import "os"
+
+// This file has some annoying nonsense to, yet again, work around the
+// panicwrap hack.
+//
+// Specifically, typically when we're running Terraform the stderr handle is
+// not directly connected to the terminal but is instead a pipe into a parent
+// process gathering up the output just in case a panic message appears.
+// However, this package needs to know whether the _real_ stderr is connected
+// to a terminal and what its width is.
+//
+// To work around that, we'll first initialize the terminal in the parent
+// process, and then capture information about stderr into an environment
+// variable so we can pass it down to the child process. The child process
+// will then use the environment variable to pretend that the panicwrap pipe
+// has the same characteristics as the terminal that it's indirectly writing
+// to.
+//
+// This file has some helpers for implementing that awkward handshake, but the
+// handshake itself is in package main, interspersed with all of the other
+// panicwrap machinery.
+//
+// You might think that the code in helper/wrappedstreams could avoid this
+// problem, but that package is broken on Windows: it always fails to recover
+// the real stderr, and it also gets an incorrect result if the user was
+// redirecting or piping stdout/stdin. So... we have this hack instead, which
+// gets a correct result even on Windows and even with I/O redirection.
+
+// StateForAfterPanicWrap is part of the workaround for panicwrap that
+// captures some characteristics of stderr that the caller can pass to the
+// panicwrap child process somehow and then use ReinitInsidePanicWrap.
+func (s *Streams) StateForAfterPanicWrap() *PrePanicwrapState {
+	return &PrePanicwrapState{
+		StderrIsTerminal: s.Stderr.IsTerminal(),
+		StderrWidth:      s.Stderr.Columns(),
+	}
+}
+
+// ReinitInsidePanicwrap is part of the workaround for panicwrap that
+// produces a Streams containing a potentially-lying Stderr that might
+// claim to be a terminal even if it's actually a pipe connected to the
+// parent process.
+//
+// That's an okay lie in practice because the parent process will copy any
+// data it recieves via that pipe verbatim to the real stderr anyway. (The
+// original call to Init in the parent process should've already done any
+// necessary modesetting on the Stderr terminal, if any.)
+//
+// The state argument can be nil if we're not running in panicwrap mode,
+// in which case this function behaves exactly the same as Init.
+func ReinitInsidePanicwrap(state *PrePanicwrapState) (*Streams, error) {
+	ret, err := Init()
+	if err != nil {
+		return ret, err
+	}
+	if state != nil {
+		// A lying stderr, then.
+		ret.Stderr = &OutputStream{
+			File: ret.Stderr.File,
+			isTerminal: func(f *os.File) bool {
+				return state.StderrIsTerminal
+			},
+			getColumns: func(f *os.File) int {
+				return state.StderrWidth
+			},
+		}
+	}
+	return ret, nil
+}
+
+// PrePanicwrapState is a horrible thing we use to work around panicwrap,
+// related to both Streams.StateForAfterPanicWrap and ReinitInsidePanicwrap.
+type PrePanicwrapState struct {
+	StderrIsTerminal bool
+	StderrWidth      int
+}
diff --git a/internal/terminal/stream.go b/internal/terminal/stream.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6d40e1b18
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/terminal/stream.go
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+package terminal
+
+import (
+	"os"
+)
+
+const defaultColumns int = 78
+const defaultIsTerminal bool = false
+
+// OutputStream represents an output stream that might or might not be connected
+// to a terminal.
+//
+// There are typically two instances of this: one representing stdout and one
+// representing stderr.
+type OutputStream struct {
+	File *os.File
+
+	// Interacting with a terminal is typically platform-specific, so we
+	// factor out these into virtual functions, although we have default
+	// behaviors suitable for non-Terminal output if any of these isn't
+	// set. (We're using function pointers rather than interfaces for this
+	// because it allows us to mix both normal methods and virtual methods
+	// on the same type, without a bunch of extra complexity.)
+	isTerminal func(*os.File) bool
+	getColumns func(*os.File) int
+}
+
+// Columns returns a number of character cell columns that we expect will
+// fill the width of the terminal that stdout is connected to, or a reasonable
+// placeholder value of 78 if the output doesn't seem to be a terminal.
+//
+// This is a best-effort sort of function which may give an inaccurate result
+// in various cases. For example, callers storing the result will not react
+// to subsequent changes in the terminal width, and indeed this function itself
+// may not be able to either, depending on the constraints of the current
+// execution context.
+func (s *OutputStream) Columns() int {
+	if s.getColumns == nil {
+		return defaultColumns
+	}
+	return s.getColumns(s.File)
+}
+
+// IsTerminal returns true if we expect that the stream is connected to a
+// terminal which supports VT100-style formatting and cursor control sequences.
+func (s *OutputStream) IsTerminal() bool {
+	if s.isTerminal == nil {
+		return defaultIsTerminal
+	}
+	return s.isTerminal(s.File)
+}
+
+// InputStream represents an input stream that might or might not be a terminal.
+//
+// There is typically only one instance of this type, representing stdin.
+type InputStream struct {
+	File *os.File
+
+	// Interacting with a terminal is typically platform-specific, so we
+	// factor out these into virtual functions, although we have default
+	// behaviors suitable for non-Terminal output if any of these isn't
+	// set. (We're using function pointers rather than interfaces for this
+	// because it allows us to mix both normal methods and virtual methods
+	// on the same type, without a bunch of extra complexity.)
+	isTerminal func(*os.File) bool
+}
+
+// IsTerminal returns true if we expect that the stream is connected to a
+// terminal which can support interactive input.
+//
+// If this returns false, callers might prefer to skip elaborate input prompt
+// functionality like tab completion and instead just treat the input as a
+// raw byte stream, or perhaps skip prompting for input at all depending on the
+// situation.
+func (s *InputStream) IsTerminal() bool {
+	if s.isTerminal == nil {
+		return defaultIsTerminal
+	}
+	return s.isTerminal(s.File)
+}
diff --git a/internal/terminal/streams.go b/internal/terminal/streams.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b473e6eda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/terminal/streams.go
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+// Package terminal encapsulates some platform-specific logic for detecting
+// if we're running in a terminal and, if so, properly configuring that
+// terminal to meet the assumptions that the rest of Terraform makes.
+//
+// Specifically, Terraform requires a Terminal which supports virtual terminal
+// sequences and which accepts UTF-8-encoded text.
+//
+// This is an abstraction only over the platform-specific detection of and
+// possibly initialization of terminals. It's not intended to provide
+// higher-level abstractions of the sort provided by packages like termcap or
+// curses; ultimately we just assume that terminals are "standard" VT100-like
+// terminals and use a subset of control codes that works across the various
+// platforms we support. Our approximate target is "xterm-compatible"
+// virtual terminals.
+package terminal
+
+import (
+	"os"
+)
+
+// Streams represents a collection of three streams that each may or may not
+// be connected to a terminal.
+//
+// If a stream is connected to a terminal then there are more possibilities
+// available, such as detecting the current terminal width. If we're connected
+// to something else, such as a pipe or a file on disk, the stream will
+// typically provide placeholder values or do-nothing stubs for
+// terminal-requiring operatons.
+//
+// Note that it's possible for only a subset of the streams to be connected
+// to a terminal. For example, this happens if the user runs Terraform with
+// I/O redirection where Stdout might refer to a regular disk file while Stderr
+// refers to a terminal, or various other similar combinations.
+type Streams struct {
+	Stdout *OutputStream
+	Stderr *OutputStream
+	Stdin  *InputStream
+}
+
+// Init tries to initialize a terminal, if Terraform is running in one, and
+// returns an object describing what it was able to set up.
+//
+// An error for this function indicates that the current execution context
+// can't meet Terraform's assumptions. For example, on Windows Init will return
+// an error if Terraform is running in a Windows Console that refuses to
+// activate UTF-8 mode, which can happen if we're running on an unsupported old
+// version of Windows.
+//
+// Note that the success of this function doesn't mean that we're actually
+// running in a terminal. It could also represent successfully detecting that
+// one or more of the input/output streams is not a terminal.
+func Init() (*Streams, error) {
+	// These configure* functions are platform-specific functions in other
+	// files that use //+build constraints to vary based on target OS.
+
+	stderr, err := configureOutputHandle(os.Stderr)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	stdout, err := configureOutputHandle(os.Stdout)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	stdin, err := configureInputHandle(os.Stdin)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	return &Streams{
+		Stdout: stdout,
+		Stderr: stderr,
+		Stdin:  stdin,
+	}, nil
+}