provider-configuration

Terraform Provider Configuration and Authentication

How a provider accepts connection settings and resolves credentials. Poor authentication UX is the first thing every user of a provider hits; a well-designed credential provider chain is what separates a production-grade provider from a demo. The examples use a fictional examplecloud provider and the Plugin Framework.

References (load when needed):

• references/credential-chain.md — complete, compilable credential chain implementation (providers, chain, file profiles, Configure wiring, tests)
• references/case-studies.md — how the AWS provider (aws-sdk-go-base) and smaller providers structure real credential chains

Provider Schema for Authentication

Every authentication attribute must be Optional, never Required — a Required attribute forces users to put credentials in configuration and makes environment-variable and credentials-file resolution impossible. Mark secrets Sensitive so Terraform redacts them in plan output, and state the environment-variable fallback in each description so tfplugindocs publishes the resolution rules.

func (p *examplecloudProvider) Schema(ctx context.Context, req provider.SchemaRequest, resp *provider.SchemaResponse) {
    resp.Schema = schema.Schema{
        Attributes: map[string]schema.Attribute{
            "endpoint": schema.StringAttribute{
                Optional:            true,
                MarkdownDescription: "API endpoint. May also be set via the `EXAMPLECLOUD_ENDPOINT` environment variable.",
            },
            "api_key": schema.StringAttribute{
                Optional:            true,
                MarkdownDescription: "API key. May also be set via the `EXAMPLECLOUD_API_KEY` environment variable, or in a shared credentials file.",
            },
            "api_secret": schema.StringAttribute{
                Optional:            true,
                Sensitive:           true,
                MarkdownDescription: "API secret. May also be set via the `EXAMPLECLOUD_API_SECRET` environment variable, or in a shared credentials file.",
            },
            "profile": schema.StringAttribute{
                Optional:            true,
                MarkdownDescription: "Named profile in the shared credentials file. May also be set via the `EXAMPLECLOUD_PROFILE` environment variable. Defaults to `default`.",
            },
            "skip_credentials_validation": schema.BoolAttribute{
                Optional:            true,
                MarkdownDescription: "Skip the identity check normally performed during provider configuration.",
            },
        },
    }
}