Terraform Advanced — Import Block (HCL)

Terraform 1.5+ introduced the import block — declarative imports written in HCL.

---

Import Block Syntax

import {
  to = aws_s3_bucket.legacy
  id = "my-existing-bucket"
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "legacy" {
  bucket = "my-existing-bucket"
}

$ terraform plan
# Shows the import plan

$ terraform apply
# Imports the resource into state

---

Benefits Over CLI Import

Feature	terraform import CLI	import block
Declarative	❌	✅
Multiple resources	One at a time	All at once
Plan preview	❌	✅
Code reviewable	❌	✅ (in Git)
Works with for_each	❌	✅

---

Import with for_each

locals {
  existing_buckets = {
    logs    = "prod-app-logs"
    assets  = "prod-app-assets"
    backups = "prod-app-backups"
  }
}

import {
  for_each = local.existing_buckets
  to       = aws_s3_bucket.this[each.key]
  id       = each.value
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "this" {
  for_each = local.existing_buckets
  bucket   = each.value
}

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What’s Next?

Auto-generate configuration from imports.

← terraform import Command generate-config-out →