How to Import an AWS API Gateway Resource into Terraform

Import AWS API Gateway Resource 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 Resource 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_resource.users
  id = "12abcde345/a1b2c3"
}

Example aws_api_gateway_resource configuration

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

resource "aws_api_gateway_resource" "users" {
  rest_api_id = "12abcde345"
  parent_id   = "rootabc123"
  path_part   = "users"
}

Gotchas when importing a AWS API Gateway Resource

• A resource is a single path segment (path_part), not the full path; nested paths are a chain of aws_api_gateway_resource blocks each referencing its parent_id.
• The import ID is the composite REST-API-ID/RESOURCE-ID; the bare resource ID by itself will not import.
• parent_id of a top-level resource is the REST API root resource ID, which you can read from the aws_api_gateway_rest_api root_resource_id attribute.
• The methods and integrations attached to this path are separate aws_api_gateway_method and aws_api_gateway_integration resources.

Doing it manually with terraform import

The native approach is to write the aws_api_gateway_resource block by hand, then run terraform import aws_api_gateway_resource.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