diff --git a/command/cliconfig/cliconfig.go b/command/cliconfig/cliconfig.go
index ea0bf1e57..2aecfb9d1 100644
--- a/command/cliconfig/cliconfig.go
+++ b/command/cliconfig/cliconfig.go
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/hashicorp/hcl"
 
-	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform-svchost"
+	svchost "github.com/hashicorp/terraform-svchost"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/tfdiags"
 )
 
@@ -42,6 +42,12 @@ type Config struct {
 
 	Credentials        map[string]map[string]interface{}   `hcl:"credentials"`
 	CredentialsHelpers map[string]*ConfigCredentialsHelper `hcl:"credentials_helper"`
+
+	// ProviderInstallation represents any provider_installation blocks
+	// in the configuration. Only one of these is allowed across the whole
+	// configuration, but we decode into a slice here so that we can handle
+	// that validation at validation time rather than initial decode time.
+	ProviderInstallation []*ProviderInstallation
 }
 
 // ConfigHost is the structure of the "host" nested block within the CLI
@@ -91,12 +97,23 @@ func LoadConfig() (*Config, tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
 		}
 	}
 
-	if configDir, err := ConfigDir(); err == nil {
-		if info, err := os.Stat(configDir); err == nil && info.IsDir() {
-			dirConfig, dirDiags := loadConfigDir(configDir)
-			diags = diags.Append(dirDiags)
-			config = config.Merge(dirConfig)
+	// Unless the user has specifically overridden the configuration file
+	// location using an environment variable, we'll also load what we find
+	// in the config directory. We skip the config directory when source
+	// file override is set because we interpret the environment variable
+	// being set as an intention to ignore the default set of CLI config
+	// files because we're doing something special, like running Terraform
+	// in automation with a locally-customized configuration.
+	if cliConfigFileOverride() == "" {
+		if configDir, err := ConfigDir(); err == nil {
+			if info, err := os.Stat(configDir); err == nil && info.IsDir() {
+				dirConfig, dirDiags := loadConfigDir(configDir)
+				diags = diags.Append(dirDiags)
+				config = config.Merge(dirConfig)
+			}
 		}
+	} else {
+		log.Printf("[DEBUG] Not reading CLI config directory because config location is overridden by environment variable")
 	}
 
 	if envConfig := EnvConfig(); envConfig != nil {
@@ -136,6 +153,13 @@ func loadConfigFile(path string) (*Config, tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
 		return result, diags
 	}
 
+	// Deal with the provider_installation block, which is not handled using
+	// DecodeObject because its structure is not compatible with the
+	// limitations of that function.
+	providerInstBlocks, moreDiags := decodeProviderInstallationFromConfig(obj)
+	diags = diags.Append(moreDiags)
+	result.ProviderInstallation = providerInstBlocks
+
 	// Replace all env vars
 	for k, v := range result.Providers {
 		result.Providers[k] = os.ExpandEnv(v)
@@ -242,6 +266,13 @@ func (c *Config) Validate() tfdiags.Diagnostics {
 		)
 	}
 
+	// Should have zero or one "provider_installation" blocks
+	if len(c.ProviderInstallation) > 1 {
+		diags = diags.Append(
+			fmt.Errorf("No more than one provider_installation block may be specified"),
+		)
+	}
+
 	return diags
 }
 
@@ -310,17 +341,18 @@ func (c1 *Config) Merge(c2 *Config) *Config {
 		}
 	}
 
+	if (len(c1.ProviderInstallation) + len(c2.ProviderInstallation)) > 0 {
+		result.ProviderInstallation = append(result.ProviderInstallation, c1.ProviderInstallation...)
+		result.ProviderInstallation = append(result.ProviderInstallation, c2.ProviderInstallation...)
+	}
+
 	return &result
 }
 
 func cliConfigFile() (string, error) {
 	mustExist := true
 
-	configFilePath := os.Getenv("TF_CLI_CONFIG_FILE")
-	if configFilePath == "" {
-		configFilePath = os.Getenv("TERRAFORM_CONFIG")
-	}
-
+	configFilePath := cliConfigFileOverride()
 	if configFilePath == "" {
 		var err error
 		configFilePath, err = ConfigFile()
@@ -347,3 +379,11 @@ func cliConfigFile() (string, error) {
 	log.Println("[DEBUG] File doesn't exist, but doesn't need to. Ignoring.")
 	return "", nil
 }
+
+func cliConfigFileOverride() string {
+	configFilePath := os.Getenv("TF_CLI_CONFIG_FILE")
+	if configFilePath == "" {
+		configFilePath = os.Getenv("TERRAFORM_CONFIG")
+	}
+	return configFilePath
+}
diff --git a/command/cliconfig/cliconfig_test.go b/command/cliconfig/cliconfig_test.go
index 194296c4c..a84e825b3 100644
--- a/command/cliconfig/cliconfig_test.go
+++ b/command/cliconfig/cliconfig_test.go
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import (
 	"testing"
 
 	"github.com/davecgh/go-spew/spew"
+	"github.com/google/go-cmp/cmp"
 )
 
 // This is the directory where our test fixtures are.
@@ -169,6 +170,29 @@ func TestConfigValidate(t *testing.T) {
 			},
 			1, // no more than one credentials_helper block allowed
 		},
+		"provider_installation good none": {
+			&Config{
+				ProviderInstallation: nil,
+			},
+			0,
+		},
+		"provider_installation good one": {
+			&Config{
+				ProviderInstallation: []*ProviderInstallation{
+					{},
+				},
+			},
+			0,
+		},
+		"provider_installation too many": {
+			&Config{
+				ProviderInstallation: []*ProviderInstallation{
+					{},
+					{},
+				},
+			},
+			1, // no more than one provider_installation block allowed
+		},
 	}
 
 	for name, test := range tests {
@@ -209,6 +233,19 @@ func TestConfig_Merge(t *testing.T) {
 		CredentialsHelpers: map[string]*ConfigCredentialsHelper{
 			"buz": {},
 		},
+		ProviderInstallation: []*ProviderInstallation{
+			{
+				Methods: []*ProviderInstallationMethod{
+					{Location: ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror("a")},
+					{Location: ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror("b")},
+				},
+			},
+			{
+				Methods: []*ProviderInstallationMethod{
+					{Location: ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror("c")},
+				},
+			},
+		},
 	}
 
 	c2 := &Config{
@@ -234,6 +271,13 @@ func TestConfig_Merge(t *testing.T) {
 		CredentialsHelpers: map[string]*ConfigCredentialsHelper{
 			"biz": {},
 		},
+		ProviderInstallation: []*ProviderInstallation{
+			{
+				Methods: []*ProviderInstallationMethod{
+					{Location: ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror("d")},
+				},
+			},
+		},
 	}
 
 	expected := &Config{
@@ -270,11 +314,29 @@ func TestConfig_Merge(t *testing.T) {
 			"buz": {},
 			"biz": {},
 		},
+		ProviderInstallation: []*ProviderInstallation{
+			{
+				Methods: []*ProviderInstallationMethod{
+					{Location: ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror("a")},
+					{Location: ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror("b")},
+				},
+			},
+			{
+				Methods: []*ProviderInstallationMethod{
+					{Location: ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror("c")},
+				},
+			},
+			{
+				Methods: []*ProviderInstallationMethod{
+					{Location: ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror("d")},
+				},
+			},
+		},
 	}
 
 	actual := c1.Merge(c2)
-	if !reflect.DeepEqual(actual, expected) {
-		t.Fatalf("bad: %#v", actual)
+	if diff := cmp.Diff(expected, actual); diff != "" {
+		t.Fatalf("wrong result\n%s", diff)
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/command/cliconfig/provider_installation.go b/command/cliconfig/provider_installation.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6ef8833fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/command/cliconfig/provider_installation.go
@@ -0,0 +1,265 @@
+package cliconfig
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+
+	"github.com/hashicorp/hcl"
+	hclast "github.com/hashicorp/hcl/hcl/ast"
+	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/tfdiags"
+)
+
+// ProviderInstallation is the structure of the "provider_installation"
+// nested block within the CLI configuration.
+type ProviderInstallation struct {
+	Methods []*ProviderInstallationMethod
+}
+
+// decodeProviderInstallationFromConfig uses the HCL AST API directly to
+// decode "provider_installation" blocks from the given file.
+//
+// This uses the HCL AST directly, rather than HCL's decoder, because the
+// intended configuration structure can't be represented using the HCL
+// decoder's struct tags. This structure is intended as something that would
+// be relatively easier to deal with in HCL 2 once we eventually migrate
+// CLI config over to that, and so this function is stricter than HCL 1's
+// decoder would be in terms of exactly what configuration shape it is
+// expecting.
+//
+// Note that this function wants the top-level file object which might or
+// might not contain provider_installation blocks, not a provider_installation
+// block directly itself.
+func decodeProviderInstallationFromConfig(hclFile *hclast.File) ([]*ProviderInstallation, tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
+	var ret []*ProviderInstallation
+	var diags tfdiags.Diagnostics
+
+	root := hclFile.Node.(*hclast.ObjectList)
+
+	// This is a rather odd hybrid: it's a HCL 2-like decode implemented using
+	// the HCL 1 AST API. That makes it a bit awkward in places, but it allows
+	// us to mimick the strictness of HCL 2 (making a later migration easier)
+	// and to support a block structure that the HCL 1 decoder can't represent.
+	for _, block := range root.Items {
+		if block.Keys[0].Token.Value() != "provider_installation" {
+			continue
+		}
+		// HCL only tracks whether the input was JSON or native syntax inside
+		// individual tokens, so we'll use our block type token to decide
+		// and assume that the rest of the block must be written in the same
+		// syntax, because syntax is a whole-file idea.
+		isJSON := block.Keys[0].Token.JSON
+		if block.Assign.Line != 0 && !isJSON {
+			// Seems to be an attribute rather than a block
+			diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+				tfdiags.Error,
+				"Invalid provider_installation block",
+				fmt.Sprintf("The provider_installation block at %s must not be introduced with an equals sign.", block.Pos()),
+			))
+			continue
+		}
+		if len(block.Keys) > 1 && !isJSON {
+			diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+				tfdiags.Error,
+				"Invalid provider_installation block",
+				fmt.Sprintf("The provider_installation block at %s must not have any labels.", block.Pos()),
+			))
+		}
+
+		pi := &ProviderInstallation{}
+
+		body, ok := block.Val.(*hclast.ObjectType)
+		if !ok {
+			// We can't get in here with native HCL syntax because we
+			// already checked above that we're using block syntax, but
+			// if we're reading JSON then our value could potentially be
+			// anything.
+			diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+				tfdiags.Error,
+				"Invalid provider_installation block",
+				fmt.Sprintf("The provider_installation block at %s must not be introduced with an equals sign.", block.Pos()),
+			))
+			continue
+		}
+
+		for _, methodBlock := range body.List.Items {
+			if methodBlock.Assign.Line != 0 && !isJSON {
+				// Seems to be an attribute rather than a block
+				diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+					tfdiags.Error,
+					"Invalid provider_installation method block",
+					fmt.Sprintf("The items inside the provider_installation block at %s must all be blocks.", block.Pos()),
+				))
+				continue
+			}
+			if len(methodBlock.Keys) > 1 && !isJSON {
+				diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+					tfdiags.Error,
+					"Invalid provider_installation method block",
+					fmt.Sprintf("The blocks inside the provider_installation block at %s may not have any labels.", block.Pos()),
+				))
+			}
+
+			methodBody, ok := methodBlock.Val.(*hclast.ObjectType)
+			if !ok {
+				// We can't get in here with native HCL syntax because we
+				// already checked above that we're using block syntax, but
+				// if we're reading JSON then our value could potentially be
+				// anything.
+				diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+					tfdiags.Error,
+					"Invalid provider_installation method block",
+					fmt.Sprintf("The items inside the provider_installation block at %s must all be blocks.", block.Pos()),
+				))
+				continue
+			}
+
+			methodTypeStr := methodBlock.Keys[0].Token.Value().(string)
+			var location ProviderInstallationLocation
+			var include, exclude []string
+			switch methodTypeStr {
+			case "direct":
+				type BodyContent struct {
+					Include []string `hcl:"include"`
+					Exclude []string `hcl:"exclude"`
+				}
+				var bodyContent BodyContent
+				err := hcl.DecodeObject(&bodyContent, methodBody)
+				if err != nil {
+					diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+						tfdiags.Error,
+						"Invalid provider_installation method block",
+						fmt.Sprintf("Invalid %s block at %s: %s.", methodTypeStr, block.Pos(), err),
+					))
+					continue
+				}
+				location = ProviderInstallationDirect
+				include = bodyContent.Include
+				exclude = bodyContent.Exclude
+			case "filesystem_mirror":
+				type BodyContent struct {
+					Path    string   `hcl:"path"`
+					Include []string `hcl:"include"`
+					Exclude []string `hcl:"exclude"`
+				}
+				var bodyContent BodyContent
+				err := hcl.DecodeObject(&bodyContent, methodBody)
+				if err != nil {
+					diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+						tfdiags.Error,
+						"Invalid provider_installation method block",
+						fmt.Sprintf("Invalid %s block at %s: %s.", methodTypeStr, block.Pos(), err),
+					))
+					continue
+				}
+				if bodyContent.Path == "" {
+					diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+						tfdiags.Error,
+						"Invalid provider_installation method block",
+						fmt.Sprintf("Invalid %s block at %s: \"path\" argument is required.", methodTypeStr, block.Pos()),
+					))
+					continue
+				}
+				location = ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror(bodyContent.Path)
+				include = bodyContent.Include
+				exclude = bodyContent.Exclude
+			case "network_mirror":
+				type BodyContent struct {
+					URL     string   `hcl:"url"`
+					Include []string `hcl:"include"`
+					Exclude []string `hcl:"exclude"`
+				}
+				var bodyContent BodyContent
+				err := hcl.DecodeObject(&bodyContent, methodBody)
+				if err != nil {
+					diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+						tfdiags.Error,
+						"Invalid provider_installation method block",
+						fmt.Sprintf("Invalid %s block at %s: %s.", methodTypeStr, block.Pos(), err),
+					))
+					continue
+				}
+				if bodyContent.URL == "" {
+					diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+						tfdiags.Error,
+						"Invalid provider_installation method block",
+						fmt.Sprintf("Invalid %s block at %s: \"url\" argument is required.", methodTypeStr, block.Pos()),
+					))
+					continue
+				}
+				location = ProviderInstallationNetworkMirror(bodyContent.URL)
+				include = bodyContent.Include
+				exclude = bodyContent.Exclude
+			default:
+				diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+					tfdiags.Error,
+					"Invalid provider_installation method block",
+					fmt.Sprintf("Unknown provider installation method %q at %s.", methodTypeStr, methodBlock.Pos()),
+				))
+				continue
+			}
+
+			pi.Methods = append(pi.Methods, &ProviderInstallationMethod{
+				Location: location,
+				Include:  include,
+				Exclude:  exclude,
+			})
+		}
+
+		ret = append(ret, pi)
+	}
+
+	return ret, diags
+}
+
+// ProviderInstallationMethod represents an installation method block inside
+// a provider_installation block.
+type ProviderInstallationMethod struct {
+	Location ProviderInstallationLocation
+	Include  []string `hcl:"include"`
+	Exclude  []string `hcl:"exclude"`
+}
+
+// ProviderInstallationLocation is an interface type representing the
+// different installation location types. The concrete implementations of
+// this interface are:
+//
+//     ProviderInstallationDirect:                install from the provider's origin registry
+//     ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror(dir): install from a local filesystem mirror
+//     ProviderInstallationNetworkMirror(host):   install from a network mirror
+type ProviderInstallationLocation interface {
+	providerInstallationLocation()
+}
+
+type providerInstallationDirect [0]byte
+
+func (i providerInstallationDirect) providerInstallationLocation() {}
+
+// ProviderInstallationDirect is a ProviderInstallationSourceLocation
+// representing installation from a provider's origin registry.
+var ProviderInstallationDirect ProviderInstallationLocation = providerInstallationDirect{}
+
+func (i providerInstallationDirect) GoString() string {
+	return "cliconfig.ProviderInstallationDirect"
+}
+
+// ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror is a ProviderInstallationSourceLocation
+// representing installation from a particular local filesystem mirror. The
+// string value is the filesystem path to the mirror directory.
+type ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror string
+
+func (i ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror) providerInstallationLocation() {}
+
+func (i ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror) GoString() string {
+	return fmt.Sprintf("cliconfig.ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror(%q)", i)
+}
+
+// ProviderInstallationNetworkMirror is a ProviderInstallationSourceLocation
+// representing installation from a particular local network mirror. The
+// string value is the HTTP base URL exactly as written in the configuration,
+// without any normalization.
+type ProviderInstallationNetworkMirror string
+
+func (i ProviderInstallationNetworkMirror) providerInstallationLocation() {}
+
+func (i ProviderInstallationNetworkMirror) GoString() string {
+	return fmt.Sprintf("cliconfig.ProviderInstallationNetworkMirror(%q)", i)
+}
diff --git a/command/cliconfig/provider_installation_test.go b/command/cliconfig/provider_installation_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5eb0b412f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/command/cliconfig/provider_installation_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+package cliconfig
+
+import (
+	"path/filepath"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/google/go-cmp/cmp"
+)
+
+func TestLoadConfig_providerInstallation(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, configFile := range []string{"provider-installation", "provider-installation.json"} {
+		t.Run(configFile, func(t *testing.T) {
+			got, diags := loadConfigFile(filepath.Join(fixtureDir, configFile))
+			if diags.HasErrors() {
+				t.Errorf("unexpected diagnostics: %s", diags.Err().Error())
+			}
+
+			want := &Config{
+				ProviderInstallation: []*ProviderInstallation{
+					{
+						Methods: []*ProviderInstallationMethod{
+							{
+								Location: ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror("/tmp/example1"),
+								Include:  []string{"example.com/*/*"},
+							},
+							{
+								Location: ProviderInstallationNetworkMirror("https://tf-Mirror.example.com/"),
+								Include:  []string{"registry.terraform.io/*/*"},
+								Exclude:  []string{"registry.Terraform.io/foobar/*"},
+							},
+							{
+								Location: ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror("/tmp/example2"),
+							},
+							{
+								Location: ProviderInstallationDirect,
+								Exclude:  []string{"example.com/*/*"},
+							},
+						},
+					},
+				},
+			}
+
+			if diff := cmp.Diff(want, got); diff != "" {
+				t.Errorf("wrong result\n%s", diff)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+func TestLoadConfig_providerInstallationErrors(t *testing.T) {
+	_, diags := loadConfigFile(filepath.Join(fixtureDir, "provider-installation-errors"))
+	want := `7 problems:
+
+- Invalid provider_installation method block: Unknown provider installation method "not_a_thing" at 2:3.
+- Invalid provider_installation method block: Invalid filesystem_mirror block at 1:1: "path" argument is required.
+- Invalid provider_installation method block: Invalid network_mirror block at 1:1: "url" argument is required.
+- Invalid provider_installation method block: The items inside the provider_installation block at 1:1 must all be blocks.
+- Invalid provider_installation method block: The blocks inside the provider_installation block at 1:1 may not have any labels.
+- Invalid provider_installation block: The provider_installation block at 9:1 must not have any labels.
+- Invalid provider_installation block: The provider_installation block at 11:1 must not be introduced with an equals sign.`
+
+	// The above error messages include only line/column location information
+	// and not file location information because HCL 1 does not store
+	// information about the filename a location belongs to. (There is a field
+	// for it in token.Pos but it's always an empty string in practice.)
+
+	if got := diags.Err().Error(); got != want {
+		t.Errorf("wrong diagnostics\ngot:\n%s\nwant:\n%s", got, want)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/command/cliconfig/testdata/provider-installation b/command/cliconfig/testdata/provider-installation
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..91dc82eab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/command/cliconfig/testdata/provider-installation
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+provider_installation {
+  filesystem_mirror {
+    path    = "/tmp/example1"
+    include = ["example.com/*/*"]
+  }
+  network_mirror {
+    url     = "https://tf-Mirror.example.com/"
+    include = ["registry.terraform.io/*/*"]
+    exclude = ["registry.Terraform.io/foobar/*"]
+  }
+  filesystem_mirror {
+    path    = "/tmp/example2"
+  }
+  direct {
+    exclude = ["example.com/*/*"]
+  }
+}
diff --git a/command/cliconfig/testdata/provider-installation-errors b/command/cliconfig/testdata/provider-installation-errors
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8cf634e50
--- /dev/null
+++ b/command/cliconfig/testdata/provider-installation-errors
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+provider_installation {
+  not_a_thing {} # unknown source type
+  filesystem_mirror {} # missing "path" argument
+  network_mirror {} # missing "host" argument
+  direct = {} # should be a block, not an argument
+  direct "what" {} # should not have a label
+}
+
+provider_installation "what" {} # should not have a label
+
+provider_installation = {} # should be a block, not an argument
diff --git a/command/cliconfig/testdata/provider-installation.json b/command/cliconfig/testdata/provider-installation.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..826d68d47
--- /dev/null
+++ b/command/cliconfig/testdata/provider-installation.json
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+{
+  "provider_installation": {
+    "filesystem_mirror": [{
+      "path": "/tmp/example1",
+      "include": ["example.com/*/*"]
+    }],
+    "network_mirror": [{
+      "url": "https://tf-Mirror.example.com/",
+      "include": ["registry.terraform.io/*/*"],
+      "exclude": ["registry.Terraform.io/foobar/*"]
+    }],
+    "filesystem_mirror": [{
+      "path": "/tmp/example2"
+    }],
+    "direct": [{
+      "exclude": ["example.com/*/*"]
+    }]
+  }
+}
diff --git a/command/e2etest/init_test.go b/command/e2etest/init_test.go
index c1ad00805..7993c4e13 100644
--- a/command/e2etest/init_test.go
+++ b/command/e2etest/init_test.go
@@ -173,6 +173,56 @@ func TestInitProvidersLocalOnly(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestInitProvidersCustomMethod(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	// This test should not reach out to the network if it is behaving as
+	// intended. If it _does_ try to access an upstream registry and encounter
+	// an error doing so then that's a legitimate test failure that should be
+	// fixed. (If it incorrectly reaches out anywhere then it's likely to be
+	// to the host "example.com", which is the placeholder domain we use in
+	// the test fixture.)
+
+	for _, configFile := range []string{"cliconfig.tfrc", "cliconfig.tfrc.json"} {
+		t.Run(configFile, func(t *testing.T) {
+			fixturePath := filepath.Join("testdata", "custom-provider-install-method")
+			tf := e2e.NewBinary(terraformBin, fixturePath)
+			defer tf.Close()
+
+			// Our fixture dir has a generic os_arch dir, which we need to customize
+			// to the actual OS/arch where this test is running in order to get the
+			// desired result.
+			fixtMachineDir := tf.Path("fs-mirror/example.com/awesomecorp/happycloud/1.2.0/os_arch")
+			wantMachineDir := tf.Path("fs-mirror/example.com/awesomecorp/happycloud/1.2.0/", fmt.Sprintf("%s_%s", runtime.GOOS, runtime.GOARCH))
+			err := os.Rename(fixtMachineDir, wantMachineDir)
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %s", err)
+			}
+
+			// We'll use a local CLI configuration file taken from our fixture
+			// directory so we can force a custom installation method config.
+			tf.AddEnv("TF_CLI_CONFIG_FILE=" + tf.Path(configFile))
+
+			stdout, stderr, err := tf.Run("init")
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Errorf("unexpected error: %s", err)
+			}
+
+			if stderr != "" {
+				t.Errorf("unexpected stderr output:\n%s", stderr)
+			}
+
+			if !strings.Contains(stdout, "Terraform has been successfully initialized!") {
+				t.Errorf("success message is missing from output:\n%s", stdout)
+			}
+
+			if !strings.Contains(stdout, "- Installing example.com/awesomecorp/happycloud v1.2.0") {
+				t.Errorf("provider download message is missing from output:\n%s", stdout)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
 func TestInitProviders_pluginCache(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Parallel()
 
diff --git a/command/e2etest/testdata/custom-provider-install-method/cliconfig.tfrc b/command/e2etest/testdata/custom-provider-install-method/cliconfig.tfrc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4b4dbefa7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/command/e2etest/testdata/custom-provider-install-method/cliconfig.tfrc
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+provider_installation {
+  filesystem_mirror {
+    path = "./fs-mirror"
+  }
+  direct {
+    exclude = ["example.com/*/*"]
+  }
+}
diff --git a/command/e2etest/testdata/custom-provider-install-method/cliconfig.tfrc.json b/command/e2etest/testdata/custom-provider-install-method/cliconfig.tfrc.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6e5e946b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/command/e2etest/testdata/custom-provider-install-method/cliconfig.tfrc.json
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+{
+  "provider_installation": {
+    "filesystem_mirror": [
+      {
+        "path": "./fs-mirror"
+      }
+    ]
+  }
+}
diff --git a/command/e2etest/testdata/custom-provider-install-method/fs-mirror/example.com/awesomecorp/happycloud/1.2.0/os_arch/terraform-provider-happycloud_v1.2.0 b/command/e2etest/testdata/custom-provider-install-method/fs-mirror/example.com/awesomecorp/happycloud/1.2.0/os_arch/terraform-provider-happycloud_v1.2.0
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3299bec8a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/command/e2etest/testdata/custom-provider-install-method/fs-mirror/example.com/awesomecorp/happycloud/1.2.0/os_arch/terraform-provider-happycloud_v1.2.0
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+This is not a real plugin executable. It's just here to be discovered by the
+provider installation process.
diff --git a/command/e2etest/testdata/custom-provider-install-method/main.tf b/command/e2etest/testdata/custom-provider-install-method/main.tf
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a521cf07b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/command/e2etest/testdata/custom-provider-install-method/main.tf
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# The purpose of this test is to refer to a provider whose address contains
+# a hostname that is only used for namespacing purposes and doesn't actually
+# have a provider registry deployed at it.
+#
+# A user can install such a provider in one of the implied local filesystem
+# directories and Terraform should accept that as the selection for that
+# provider without producing any errors about the fact that example.com
+# does not have a provider registry.
+#
+# For this test in particular we're using the "vendor" directory that is
+# the documented way to include provider plugins directly inside a
+# configuration uploaded to Terraform Cloud, but this functionality applies
+# to all of the implicit local filesystem search directories.
+
+terraform {
+  required_providers {
+    happycloud = {
+      source = "example.com/awesomecorp/happycloud"
+    }
+  }
+}
diff --git a/internal/getproviders/http_mirror_source.go b/internal/getproviders/http_mirror_source.go
index 5b5bb80f1..c2dedf9db 100644
--- a/internal/getproviders/http_mirror_source.go
+++ b/internal/getproviders/http_mirror_source.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package getproviders
 
 import (
+	"fmt"
 	"net/url"
 
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/addrs"
@@ -26,13 +27,11 @@ func NewHTTPMirrorSource(baseURL *url.URL) *HTTPMirrorSource {
 // AvailableVersions retrieves the available versions for the given provider
 // from the object's underlying HTTP mirror service.
 func (s *HTTPMirrorSource) AvailableVersions(provider addrs.Provider) (VersionList, error) {
-	// TODO: Implement
-	panic("HTTPMirrorSource.AvailableVersions not yet implemented")
+	return nil, fmt.Errorf("Network-based provider mirrors are not supported in this version of Terraform")
 }
 
 // PackageMeta retrieves metadata for the requested provider package
 // from the object's underlying HTTP mirror service.
 func (s *HTTPMirrorSource) PackageMeta(provider addrs.Provider, version Version, target Platform) (PackageMeta, error) {
-	// TODO: Implement
-	panic("HTTPMirrorSource.PackageMeta not yet implemented")
+	return PackageMeta{}, fmt.Errorf("Network-based provider mirrors are not supported in this version of Terraform")
 }
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index f9a3b9cf8..c11432c3f 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -127,6 +127,7 @@ func wrappedMain() int {
 	log.Printf("[INFO] CLI args: %#v", os.Args)
 
 	config, diags := cliconfig.LoadConfig()
+
 	if len(diags) > 0 {
 		// Since we haven't instantiated a command.Meta yet, we need to do
 		// some things manually here and use some "safe" defaults for things
@@ -164,11 +165,22 @@ func wrappedMain() int {
 	services := disco.NewWithCredentialsSource(credsSrc)
 	services.SetUserAgent(httpclient.TerraformUserAgent(version.String()))
 
-	// For the moment, we just always use the registry source to install
-	// direct from a registry. In future there should be a mechanism to
-	// configure providers sources from the CLI config, which will then
-	// change how we construct this object.
-	providerSrc := providerSource(services)
+	providerSrc, diags := providerSource(config.ProviderInstallation, services)
+	if len(diags) > 0 {
+		Ui.Error("There are some problems with the provider_installation configuration:")
+		for _, diag := range diags {
+			earlyColor := &colorstring.Colorize{
+				Colors:  colorstring.DefaultColors,
+				Disable: true, // Disable color to be conservative until we know better
+				Reset:   true,
+			}
+			Ui.Error(format.Diagnostic(diag, nil, earlyColor, 78))
+		}
+		if diags.HasErrors() {
+			Ui.Error("As a result of the above problems, Terraform's provider installer may not behave as intended.\n\n")
+			// We continue to run anyway, because most commands don't do provider installation.
+		}
+	}
 
 	// Initialize the backends.
 	backendInit.Init(services)
diff --git a/provider_source.go b/provider_source.go
index 8e91658a8..b65dbf439 100644
--- a/provider_source.go
+++ b/provider_source.go
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 package main
 
 import (
+	"fmt"
 	"log"
+	"net/url"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 
@@ -11,18 +13,69 @@ import (
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/addrs"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/command/cliconfig"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/internal/getproviders"
+	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/tfdiags"
 )
 
 // providerSource constructs a provider source based on a combination of the
 // CLI configuration and some default search locations. This will be the
 // provider source used for provider installation in the "terraform init"
 // command, unless overridden by the special -plugin-dir option.
-func providerSource(services *disco.Disco) getproviders.Source {
-	// We're not yet using the CLI config here because we've not implemented
-	// yet the new configuration constructs to customize provider search
-	// locations. That'll come later. For now, we just always use the
-	// implicit default provider source.
-	return implicitProviderSource(services)
+func providerSource(configs []*cliconfig.ProviderInstallation, services *disco.Disco) (getproviders.Source, tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
+	if len(configs) == 0 {
+		// If there's no explicit installation configuration then we'll build
+		// up an implicit one with direct registry installation along with
+		// some automatically-selected local filesystem mirrors.
+		return implicitProviderSource(services), nil
+	}
+
+	// There should only be zero or one configurations, which is checked by
+	// the validation logic in the cliconfig package. Therefore we'll just
+	// ignore any additional configurations in here.
+	config := configs[0]
+	return explicitProviderSource(config, services)
+}
+
+func explicitProviderSource(config *cliconfig.ProviderInstallation, services *disco.Disco) (getproviders.Source, tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
+	var diags tfdiags.Diagnostics
+	var searchRules []getproviders.MultiSourceSelector
+
+	log.Printf("[DEBUG] Explicit provider installation configuration is set")
+	for _, methodConfig := range config.Methods {
+		source, moreDiags := providerSourceForCLIConfigLocation(methodConfig.Location, services)
+		diags = diags.Append(moreDiags)
+		if moreDiags.HasErrors() {
+			continue
+		}
+
+		include, err := getproviders.ParseMultiSourceMatchingPatterns(methodConfig.Include)
+		if err != nil {
+			diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+				tfdiags.Error,
+				"Invalid provider source inclusion patterns",
+				fmt.Sprintf("CLI config specifies invalid provider inclusion patterns: %s.", err),
+			))
+			continue
+		}
+		exclude, err := getproviders.ParseMultiSourceMatchingPatterns(methodConfig.Exclude)
+		if err != nil {
+			diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+				tfdiags.Error,
+				"Invalid provider source exclusion patterns",
+				fmt.Sprintf("CLI config specifies invalid provider exclusion patterns: %s.", err),
+			))
+			continue
+		}
+
+		searchRules = append(searchRules, getproviders.MultiSourceSelector{
+			Source:  source,
+			Include: include,
+			Exclude: exclude,
+		})
+
+		log.Printf("[TRACE] Selected provider installation method %#v with includes %s and excludes %s", methodConfig.Location, include, exclude)
+	}
+
+	return getproviders.MultiSource(searchRules), diags
 }
 
 // implicitProviderSource builds a default provider source to use if there's
@@ -130,3 +183,45 @@ func implicitProviderSource(services *disco.Disco) getproviders.Source {
 
 	return getproviders.MultiSource(searchRules)
 }
+
+func providerSourceForCLIConfigLocation(loc cliconfig.ProviderInstallationLocation, services *disco.Disco) (getproviders.Source, tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
+	if loc == cliconfig.ProviderInstallationDirect {
+		return getproviders.NewMemoizeSource(
+			getproviders.NewRegistrySource(services),
+		), nil
+	}
+
+	switch loc := loc.(type) {
+
+	case cliconfig.ProviderInstallationFilesystemMirror:
+		return getproviders.NewFilesystemMirrorSource(string(loc)), nil
+
+	case cliconfig.ProviderInstallationNetworkMirror:
+		url, err := url.Parse(string(loc))
+		if err != nil {
+			var diags tfdiags.Diagnostics
+			diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+				tfdiags.Error,
+				"Invalid URL for provider installation source",
+				fmt.Sprintf("Cannot parse %q as a URL for a network provider mirror: %s.", string(loc), err),
+			))
+			return nil, diags
+		}
+		if url.Scheme != "https" || url.Host == "" {
+			var diags tfdiags.Diagnostics
+			diags = diags.Append(tfdiags.Sourceless(
+				tfdiags.Error,
+				"Invalid URL for provider installation source",
+				fmt.Sprintf("Cannot use %q as a URL for a network provider mirror: the mirror must be at an https: URL.", string(loc)),
+			))
+			return nil, diags
+		}
+		return getproviders.NewHTTPMirrorSource(url), nil
+
+	default:
+		// We should not get here because the set of cases above should
+		// be comprehensive for all of the
+		// cliconfig.ProviderInstallationLocation implementations.
+		panic(fmt.Sprintf("unexpected provider source location type %T", loc))
+	}
+}
diff --git a/website/docs/commands/cli-config.html.markdown b/website/docs/commands/cli-config.html.markdown
index fd4e9a552..9e76cb5ad 100644
--- a/website/docs/commands/cli-config.html.markdown
+++ b/website/docs/commands/cli-config.html.markdown
@@ -51,6 +51,14 @@ disable_checkpoint = true
 
 The following settings can be set in the CLI configuration file:
 
+- `credentials` - configures credentials for use with Terraform Cloud or
+  Terraform Enterprise. See [Credentials](#credentials) below for more
+  information.
+
+- `credentials_helper` - configures an external helper program for the storage
+  and retrieval of credentials for Terraform Cloud or Terraform Enterprise.
+  See [Credentials Helpers](#credentials-helpers) below for more information.
+
 - `disable_checkpoint` — when set to `true`, disables
   [upgrade and security bulletin checks](/docs/commands/index.html#upgrade-and-security-bulletin-checks)
   that require reaching out to HashiCorp-provided network services.
@@ -60,16 +68,12 @@ The following settings can be set in the CLI configuration file:
   id used to de-duplicate warning messages.
 
 - `plugin_cache_dir` — enables
-  [plugin caching](/docs/configuration/providers.html#provider-plugin-cache)
+  [plugin caching](#provider-plugin-cache)
   and specifies, as a string, the location of the plugin cache directory.
 
-- `credentials` - configures credentials for use with Terraform Cloud or
-  Terraform Enterprise. See [Credentials](#credentials) below for more
-  information.
-
-- `credentials_helper` - configures an external helper program for the storage
-  and retrieval of credentials for Terraform Cloud or Terraform Enterprise.
-  See [Credentials Helpers](#credentials-helpers) below for more information.
+- `provider_installation` - customizes the installation methods used by
+  `terraform init` when installing provider plugins. See
+  [Provider Installation](#provider-installation) below for more information.
 
 ## Credentials
 
@@ -144,14 +148,200 @@ To learn how to write and install your own credentials helpers to integrate
 with existing in-house credentials management systems, see
 [the guide to Credentials Helper internals](/docs/internals/credentials-helpers.html).
 
-## Deprecated Settings
+## Provider Installation
 
-The following settings are supported for backward compatibility but are no
-longer recommended for use:
+The default way to install provider plugins is from a provider registry. The
+origin registry for a provider is encoded in the provider's source address,
+like `registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/aws`. For convenience in the common case,
+Terraform allows omitting the hostname portion for providers on
+`registry.terraform.io`, so we'd normally write `hashicorp/aws` instead in
+this case.
+
+Downloading a plugin directly from its origin registry is not always
+appropriate, though. For example, the system where you are running Terraform
+may not be able to access an origin registry due to firewall restrictions
+within your organization or your locality.
+
+To allow using Terraform providers in these situations, there are some
+alternative options for making provider plugins available to Terraform which
+we'll describe in the following sections.
+
+### Explicit Installation Method Configuration
+
+A `provider_installation` block in the CLI configuration allows overriding
+Terraform's default installation behaviors, so you can force Terraform to use
+a local mirror for some or all of the providers you intend to use.
+
+The general structure of a `provider_installation` block is as follows:
+
+```hcl
+provider_installation {
+  filesystem_mirror {
+    path    = "/usr/share/terraform/providers"
+    include = ["example.com/*/*"]
+  }
+  direct {
+    exclude = ["example.com/*/*"]
+  }
+}
+```
+
+Each of the nested blocks inside the `provider_installation` block specifies
+one installation method. Each installation method can take both `include`
+and `exclude` patterns that specify which providers a particular installation
+method can be used for. In the example above, we specify that any provider
+whose origin registry is at `example.com` can be installed only from the
+filesystem mirror at `/usr/share/terraform/providers`, while all other
+providers can be installed only directly from their origin registries.
+
+If you set both both `include` and `exclude` for a particular installation
+method, the exclusion patterns take priority. For example, including
+`registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/*` but also excluding
+`registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/dns` will make that installation method apply
+to everything in the `hashicorp` namespace with the exception of
+`hashicorp/dns`.
+
+As with provider source addresses in the main configuration, you can omit
+the `registry.terraform.io/` prefix for providers distributed through the
+public Terraform registry, even when using wildcards. For example,
+`registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/*` and `hashicorp/*` are equivalent.
+`*/*` is a shorthand for `registry.terraform.io/*/*`, not for
+`*/*/*`.
+
+The following are the two supported installation method types:
+
+* `direct`: request information about the provider directly from its origin
+  registry and download over the network from the location that registry
+  indicates. This method expects no additional arguments.
+
+* `filesystem_mirror`: consult a directory on the local disk for copies of
+  providers. This method requires the additional argument `path` to indicate
+  which directory to look in.
+
+    Terraform expects the given directory to contain a nested directory structure
+    where the path segments together provide metadata about the available
+    providers. The following two directory structures are supported:
+
+    * Packed layout: `HOSTNAME/NAMESPACE/TYPE/terraform-provider-TYPE_VERSION_TARGET.zip`
+      is the distribution zip file obtained from the provider's origin registry.
+    * Unpacked layout: `HOSTNAME/NAMESPACE/TYPE/VERSION/TARGET` is a directory
+      containing the result of extracting the provider's distribution zip file.
+
+    In both layouts, the `VERSION` is a string like `2.0.0` and the `TARGET`
+    specifies a particular target platform using a format like `darwin_amd64`,
+    `linux_arm`, `windows_amd64`, etc.
+
+    If you use the unpacked layout, Terraform will attempt to create a symbolic
+    link to the mirror directory when installing the provider, rather than
+    creating a deep copy of the directory. The packed layout prevents this
+    because Terraform must extract the zip file during installation.
+
+    You can include multiple `filesystem_mirror` blocks in order to specify
+    several different directories to search.
+
+Terraform will try all of the specified methods whose include and exclude
+patterns match a given provider, and select the newest version available across
+all of those methods that matches the version constraint given in each
+Terraform configuration. If you have a local mirror of a particular provider
+and intend Terraform to use that local mirror exclusively, you must either
+remove the `direct` installation method altogether or use its `exclude`
+argument to disable its use for specific providers.
+
+### Implied Local Mirror Directories
+
+If your CLI configuration does not include a `provider_installation` block at
+all, Terraform produces an _implied_ configuration. The implied configuration
+includes a selection of `filesystem_mirror` methods and then the `direct`
+method.
+
+The set of directories Terraform can select as filesystem mirrors depends on
+the operating system where you are running Terraform:
+
+* **Windows:** `%APPDATA%/HashiCorp/Terraform/plugins`
+* **Mac OS X:** `~/Library/Application Support/io.terraform/plugins` and
+  `/Library/Application Support/io.terraform/plugins`
+* **Linux and other Unix-like systems**: Terraform implements the
+  [XDG Base Directory](https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html)
+  specification and appends `terraform/plugins` to all of the specified
+  data directories. Without any XDG environment variables set, Terraform
+  will use `~/.local/share/terraform/plugins`,
+  `/usr/local/share/terraform/plugins`, and `/usr/share/terraform/plugins`.
+
+Terraform will create an implied `filesystem_mirror` method block for each of
+the directories indicated above that exists when Terraform starts up.
+
+In addition to the zero or more implied `filesystem_mirror` blocks, Terraform
+also creates an implied `direct` block. Terraform will scan all of the
+filesystem mirror directories to see which providers are placed there and
+automatically exclude all of those providers from the implied `direct` block.
+(This automatic `exclude` behavior applies only to _implicit_ `direct` blocks;
+if you use explicit `provider_installation` you will need to write the intended
+exclusions out yourself.)
+
+### Provider Plugin Cache
+
+By default, `terraform init` downloads plugins into a subdirectory of the
+working directory so that each working directory is self-contained. As a
+consequence, if you have multiple configurations that use the same provider
+then a separate copy of its plugin will be downloaded for each configuration.
+
+Given that provider plugins can be quite large (on the order of hundreds of
+megabytes), this default behavior can be inconvenient for those with slow
+or metered Internet connections. Therefore Terraform optionally allows the
+use of a local directory as a shared plugin cache, which then allows each
+distinct plugin binary to be downloaded only once.
+
+To enable the plugin cache, use the `plugin_cache_dir` setting in
+the CLI configuration file. For example:
+
+```hcl
+plugin_cache_dir = "$HOME/.terraform.d/plugin-cache"
+```
+
+This directory must already exist before Terraform will cache plugins;
+Terraform will not create the directory itself.
+
+Please note that on Windows it is necessary to use forward slash separators
+(`/`) rather than the conventional backslash (`\`) since the configuration
+file parser considers a backslash to begin an escape sequence.
+
+Setting this in the configuration file is the recommended approach for a
+persistent setting. Alternatively, the `TF_PLUGIN_CACHE_DIR` environment
+variable can be used to enable caching or to override an existing cache
+directory within a particular shell session:
+
+```bash
+export TF_PLUGIN_CACHE_DIR="$HOME/.terraform.d/plugin-cache"
+```
+
+When a plugin cache directory is enabled, the `terraform init` command will
+still use the configured or implied installation methods to obtain metadata
+about which plugins are available, but once a suitable version has been
+selected it will first check to see if the chosen plugin is already available
+in the cache directory. If so, Terraform will use the previously-downloaded
+copy.
+
+If the selected plugin is not already in the cache, Terraform will download
+it into the cache first and then copy it from there into the correct location
+under your current working directory. When possible Terraform will use
+symbolic links to avoid storing a separate copy of a cached plugin in multiple
+directories.
+
+The plugin cache directory _must not_ also be one of the configured or implied
+filesystem mirror directories, since the cache management logic conflicts with
+the filesystem mirror logic when operating on the same directory.
+
+Terraform will never itself delete a plugin from the plugin cache once it has
+been placed there. Over time, as plugins are upgraded, the cache directory may
+grow to contain several unused versions which you must delete manually.
+
+## Removed Settings
+
+The following settings are supported in Terraform 0.12 and earlier but are
+no longer recommended for use:
 
 * `providers` - a configuration block that allows specifying the locations of
   specific plugins for each named provider. This mechanism is deprecated
-  because it is unable to specify a version number for each plugin, and thus
-  it does not co-operate with the plugin versioning mechanism. Instead,
-  place the plugin executable files in
-  [the third-party plugins directory](/docs/configuration/providers.html#third-party-plugins).
+  because it is unable to specify a version number and source for each provider.
+  See [Provider Installation](#provider-installation) above for the replacement
+  of this setting in Terraform 0.13 and later.
diff --git a/website/docs/configuration/providers.html.md b/website/docs/configuration/providers.html.md
index dff4f6cc9..4d06e2066 100644
--- a/website/docs/configuration/providers.html.md
+++ b/website/docs/configuration/providers.html.md
@@ -233,65 +233,35 @@ from their parents.
 
 Anyone can develop and distribute their own Terraform providers. (See
 [Writing Custom Providers](/docs/extend/writing-custom-providers.html) for more
-about provider development.) These third-party providers must be manually
-installed, since `terraform init` cannot automatically download them.
+about provider development.)
 
-Install third-party providers by placing their plugin executables in the user
-plugins directory. The user plugins directory is in one of the following
-locations, depending on the host operating system:
+The main way to distribute a provider is via a provider registry, and the main
+provider registry is
+[part of the public Terraform Registry](https://registry.terraform.io/browse/providers),
+along with public shared modules.
 
-Operating system  | User plugins directory
-------------------|-----------------------
-Windows           | `%APPDATA%\terraform.d\plugins`
-All other systems | `~/.terraform.d/plugins`
+Providers distributed via a public registry to not require any special
+additional configuration to use, once you know their source addresses. You can
+specify both official and third-party source addresses in the
+`required_providers` block in your module:
 
-Once a plugin is installed, `terraform init` can initialize it normally. You must run this command from the directory where the configuration files are located.
+```hcl
+terraform {
+  required_providers {
+    # An example third-party provider. Not actually available.
+    example = {
+      source = "example.com/examplecorp/example"
+    }
+  }
+}
+```
 
-Providers distributed by HashiCorp can also go in the user plugins directory. If
-a manually installed version meets the configuration's version constraints,
-Terraform will use it instead of downloading that provider. This is useful in
-airgapped environments and when testing pre-release provider builds.
-
-### Plugin Names and Versions
-
-The naming scheme for provider plugins is `terraform-provider-<NAME>_vX.Y.Z`,
-and Terraform uses the name to understand the name and version of a particular
-provider binary.
-
-If multiple versions of a plugin are installed, Terraform will use the newest
-version that meets the configuration's version constraints.
-
-Third-party plugins are often distributed with an appropriate filename already
-set in the distribution archive, so that they can be extracted directly into the
-user plugins directory.
-
-### OS and Architecture Directories
-
-Terraform plugins are compiled for a specific operating system and architecture,
-and any plugins in the root of the user plugins directory must be compiled for
-the current system.
-
-If you use the same plugins directory on multiple systems, you can install
-plugins into subdirectories with a naming scheme of `<OS>_<ARCH>` (for example,
-`darwin_amd64`). Terraform uses plugins from the root of the plugins directory
-and from the subdirectory that corresponds to the current system, ignoring
-other subdirectories.
-
-Terraform's OS and architecture strings are the standard ones used by the Go
-language. The following are the most common:
-
-* `darwin_amd64`
-* `freebsd_386`
-* `freebsd_amd64`
-* `freebsd_arm`
-* `linux_386`
-* `linux_amd64`
-* `linux_arm`
-* `openbsd_386`
-* `openbsd_amd64`
-* `solaris_amd64`
-* `windows_386`
-* `windows_amd64`
+Installing directly from a registry is not appropriate for all situations,
+though. If you are running Terraform from a system that cannot access some or
+all of the necessary origin registries, you can configure Terraform to obtain
+providers from a local mirror instead. For more information, see
+[Provider Installation](../commands/cli-config.html#provider-installation)
+in the CLI configuration documentation.
 
 ## Provider Plugin Cache
 
@@ -308,51 +278,3 @@ distinct plugin binary to be downloaded only once.
 
 To enable the plugin cache, use the `plugin_cache_dir` setting in
 [the CLI configuration file](/docs/commands/cli-config.html).
-For example:
-
-```hcl
-# (Note that the CLI configuration file is _not_ the same as the .tf files
-#  used to configure infrastructure.)
-
-plugin_cache_dir = "$HOME/.terraform.d/plugin-cache"
-```
-
-This directory must already exist before Terraform will cache plugins;
-Terraform will not create the directory itself.
-
-Please note that on Windows it is necessary to use forward slash separators
-(`/`) rather than the conventional backslash (`\`) since the configuration
-file parser considers a backslash to begin an escape sequence.
-
-Setting this in the configuration file is the recommended approach for a
-persistent setting. Alternatively, the `TF_PLUGIN_CACHE_DIR` environment
-variable can be used to enable caching or to override an existing cache
-directory within a particular shell session:
-
-```bash
-export TF_PLUGIN_CACHE_DIR="$HOME/.terraform.d/plugin-cache"
-```
-
-When a plugin cache directory is enabled, the `terraform init` command will
-still access the plugin distribution server to obtain metadata about which
-plugins are available, but once a suitable version has been selected it will
-first check to see if the selected plugin is already available in the cache
-directory. If so, the already-downloaded plugin binary will be used.
-
-If the selected plugin is not already in the cache, it will be downloaded
-into the cache first and then copied from there into the correct location
-under your current working directory.
-
-When possible, Terraform will use hardlinks or symlinks to avoid storing
-a separate copy of a cached plugin in multiple directories. At present, this
-is not supported on Windows and instead a copy is always created.
-
-The plugin cache directory must _not_ be the third-party plugin directory
-or any other directory Terraform searches for pre-installed plugins, since
-the cache management logic conflicts with the normal plugin discovery logic
-when operating on the same directory.
-
-Please note that Terraform will never itself delete a plugin from the
-plugin cache once it's been placed there. Over time, as plugins are upgraded,
-the cache directory may grow to contain several unused versions which must be
-manually deleted.