diff --git a/command/flag_kv.go b/command/flag_kv.go
index a618001df..8d73e43b0 100644
--- a/command/flag_kv.go
+++ b/command/flag_kv.go
@@ -166,6 +166,7 @@ func parseVarFlagAsHCL(input string) (string, interface{}, error) {
 	if _, err := strconv.ParseFloat(trimmed, 64); err == nil {
 		return probablyName, value, nil
 	}
+
 	// HCL will also parse hex as a number
 	if strings.HasPrefix(trimmed, "0x") {
 		if _, err := strconv.ParseInt(trimmed[2:], 16, 64); err == nil {
@@ -173,6 +174,13 @@ func parseVarFlagAsHCL(input string) (string, interface{}, error) {
 		}
 	}
 
+	// If the value is a boolean value, also convert it to a simple string
+	// since Terraform core doesn't accept primitives as anything other
+	// than string for now.
+	if _, err := strconv.ParseBool(trimmed); err == nil {
+		return probablyName, value, nil
+	}
+
 	parsed, err := hcl.Parse(input)
 	if err != nil {
 		// If it didn't parse as HCL, we check if it doesn't match our
diff --git a/command/flag_kv_test.go b/command/flag_kv_test.go
index de5dd9d84..d42c88d36 100644
--- a/command/flag_kv_test.go
+++ b/command/flag_kv_test.go
@@ -98,6 +98,12 @@ func TestFlagTypedKV(t *testing.T) {
 			false,
 		},
 
+		{
+			"key=false",
+			map[string]interface{}{"key": "false"},
+			false,
+		},
+
 		{
 			"map.key=foo",
 			map[string]interface{}{"map.key": "foo"},