diff --git a/src/gitlab-tofu.sh b/src/gitlab-tofu.sh
index 97903566cd23a8302a3da255ad5d78a6411233d7..7c7826e0865d8214b147d4a49f7ec1a823de66ad 100644
--- a/src/gitlab-tofu.sh
+++ b/src/gitlab-tofu.sh
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 # GITLAB_TOFU_APPLY_NO_PLAN: if set to true, the apply command does not use a plan cache file.
 # GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_NAME: the name of the plan cache and json files. Defaults to `plan`.
 # GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_CACHE: if set is the full path of the plan cache file. Defaults to `<root>/$GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_NAME.cache`
+# GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_JSON: if set is the full path of the plan json file. Defaults to `<root>/$GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_NAME.json`
 #
 # Respected OpenTofu Environment Variables:
 # > these are variables that are
@@ -134,9 +135,9 @@ if [ -z "${GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_CACHE}" ]; then
   GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_CACHE="${default_tf_plan_cache:-${GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_NAME}.cache}"
 fi
 
-# If TF_PLAN_JSON is not set then use either the plan.json file within TF_ROOT if set, or plan.json in CWD
-if [ -z "${TF_PLAN_JSON}" ]; then
-  TF_PLAN_JSON="${default_tf_plan_json:-${GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_NAME}.json}"
+# If GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_JSON is not set then use either the plan.json file within TF_ROOT if set, or plan.json in CWD
+if [ -z "${GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_JSON}" ]; then
+  GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_JSON="${default_tf_plan_json:-${GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_NAME}.json}"
 fi
 
 # Set variables for the HTTP backend to default to TF_* values
@@ -265,7 +266,7 @@ if [ $sourced -eq 0 ]; then
 
       if [ "${GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_WITH_JSON}" = 'true' ]; then
         if [ "$ret" -eq 0 ] || [ "$ret" -eq 2 ]; then
-          if ! tofu "${TF_CHDIR_OPT}" show -json "${GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_CACHE}" | jq -r "${JQ_PLAN}" > "${TF_PLAN_JSON}"; then
+          if ! tofu "${TF_CHDIR_OPT}" show -json "${GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_CACHE}" | jq -r "${JQ_PLAN}" > "${GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_JSON}"; then
             exit $?
           fi
 
@@ -277,7 +278,7 @@ if [ $sourced -eq 0 ]; then
       exit "$ret"
     ;;
     "plan-json")
-      tofu "${TF_CHDIR_OPT}" show -json "${GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_CACHE}" | jq -r "${JQ_PLAN}" > "${TF_PLAN_JSON}"
+      tofu "${TF_CHDIR_OPT}" show -json "${GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_CACHE}" | jq -r "${JQ_PLAN}" > "${GITLAB_TOFU_PLAN_JSON}"
     ;;
     "validate")
       $TF_IMPLICIT_INIT && terraform_init -backend=false
diff --git a/templates/apply.yml b/templates/apply.yml
index c1daee3b2b62d07b847ab598a68cfcbcd120a1cf..4178f018960dc30ace754a0b403b4c25e38274fe 100644
--- a/templates/apply.yml
+++ b/templates/apply.yml
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ spec:
       description: 'Whether a plan file should be used.'
     plan_name:
       default: 'plan'
-      description: 'The name of the plan file to use. Will be used for TF_PLAN_CACHE and TF_PLAN_JSON.'
+      description: 'The name of the plan file to use. Will be used for plan cache and json files.'
     var_file:
       default: ''
       type: string