provider-resources

Terraform Provider Resources Implementation Guide

Overview

This guide covers developing Terraform Provider resources and data sources. Resources represent infrastructure objects that Terraform manages through Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operations.

Use the Plugin Framework for all net-new resources and data sources. Plugin SDKv2 is for maintaining resources that already exist on it; do not write new code against it. A provider can serve both during migration by muxing (terraform-plugin-mux), so adopting the Framework never requires a big-bang rewrite. To tell which mode an existing provider is in, check go.mod: terraform-plugin-mux present means it serves both SDKv2 and Framework code; only terraform-plugin-sdk/v2 means SDKv2-only; only terraform-plugin-framework means Framework-only. Be cautious about migrating existing SDKv2 resources: the Framework distinguishes null from zero values, so naive migrations change behavior for existing users (use the provider-framework-migration skill, if available).

References (load when needed):

• references/design-principles.md — what should (and should not) become a resource; data source semantics; relationship and async-task modeling
• references/retries-and-waiters.md — eventual consistency, retry patterns, and status/wait function structure

File Structure

Most providers keep every resource in a single package:

internal/provider/
├── provider.go                  # Provider schema + Configure
├── widget_resource.go           # Resource implementation
├── widget_resource_test.go      # Acceptance tests
├── widget_data_source.go        # Data source (if applicable)
└── widget_data_source_test.go

Large multi-service providers (e.g. terraform-provider-aws) split into internal/service/<service>/ packages instead, with an idiomatic file taxonomy worth adopting once a package grows: consts.go, find.go (finders), status.go (status functions), wait.go (waiters), sweep.go (test sweepers), exports_test.go.