terraform-state-manager

Terraform State Manager

This skill provides safe workflows for Terraform state operations and troubleshooting.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Importing existing infrastructure into Terraform
• Moving resources to different addresses (renaming)
• Removing resources from state without destroying them
• Migrating state between backends (local to S3, etc.)
• Recovering from state corruption or conflicts
• Splitting or merging state files

Critical Safety Rules

ALWAYS follow these rules when working with state:

1. Backup first: Create state backup before any operation
2. Plan after: Run terraform plan after state changes to verify
3. One at a time: Make incremental changes, not bulk operations
4. Test in non-prod: Practice state operations in dev/test first
5. Version control: Commit code changes with state operations

Common Operations

1. Import Existing Resources

Workflow:

# Step 1: Write the resource configuration in .tf file
# Step 2: Import the resource
terraform import <resource_address> <resource_id>

# Step 3: Verify with plan (should show no changes)
terraform plan

Example - Import AWS S3 Bucket:

# 1. Add to main.tf
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "existing" {
  bucket = "my-existing-bucket"
}

# 2. Import
terraform import aws_s3_bucket.existing my-existing-bucket

# 3. Verify
terraform plan  # Should show: No changes

Tips:

• Find resource ID format in provider docs
• Import one resource at a time
• Some resources require multiple imports (bucket + versioning + encryption)
• Use terraform show to see imported attributes

2. Move Resources (Rename/Refactor)

Workflow:

# Move resource to new address
terraform state mv <source> <destination>

# Verify
terraform plan  # Should show: No changes

Example - Rename Resource:

# Before: aws_s3_bucket.bucket
# After:  aws_s3_bucket.main

terraform state mv aws_s3_bucket.bucket aws_s3_bucket.main

Example - Move to Module: