How to Import an AWS API Gateway Method Response into Terraform

Import AWS API Gateway Method Response with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Amazon API Gateway resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live AWS API Gateway Method Response to managed Terraform.

terraback scan all aws --region us-east-1

terraback aws import --method bulk

The Terraform import block

Terraback emits a Terraform 1.5+ import block like the one below. Because the block lives in your configuration, the import is reviewable in a pull request and repeatable across environments.

import {
  to = aws_api_gateway_method_response.example
  id = "12345abcde/67890fghij/GET/200"
}

Example aws_api_gateway_method_response configuration

Here is a realistic AWS API Gateway Method Response block. Terraback generates a fuller version from your actual resource attributes; this is a minimal, valid starting point.

resource "aws_api_gateway_method_response" "example" {
  rest_api_id = "12345abcde"
  resource_id = "67890fghij"
  http_method = "GET"
  status_code = "200"

  response_models = {
    "application/json" = "Empty"
  }
}

Gotchas when importing a AWS API Gateway Method Response

• A method response is a child of an aws_api_gateway_method; the parent method, resource, and REST API must exist first, and the four-part composite import ID encodes all of them plus the status code.
• response_parameters here are boolean maps (whether a header is returned), which is different from the integration response that supplies the header value; do not confuse the two resources.
• Every status code the API returns needs its own method_response resource and its own import ID, so a single method with 200/400/500 responses imports as three separate resources.
• The status_code declared here must match a corresponding aws_api_gateway_integration_response, otherwise the gateway returns errors at runtime even though Terraform state is clean.

Doing it manually with terraform import

The native approach is to write the aws_api_gateway_method_response block by hand, then run terraform import aws_api_gateway_method_response.example <import-id> for every resource, one at a time. That works for a handful of resources, but it does not scale: you author all the HCL yourself and repeat the command for each item. Terraback generates the HCL and the import blocks for your whole account in one pass.

Import other AWS resources