How to Import an AWS CloudFront Cache Policy into Terraform

Import AWS CloudFront Cache Policy with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Amazon CloudFront resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live AWS CloudFront Cache Policy 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_cloudfront_cache_policy.example
  id = "658327ea-f89d-4fab-a63d-7e88639e58f6"
}

Example aws_cloudfront_cache_policy configuration

Here is a realistic AWS CloudFront Cache Policy block. Terraback generates a fuller version from your actual resource attributes; this is a minimal, valid starting point.

resource "aws_cloudfront_cache_policy" "example" {
  name        = "example-cache-policy"
  default_ttl = 86400
  max_ttl     = 31536000
  min_ttl     = 1

  parameters_in_cache_key_and_forwarded_to_origin {
    headers_config {
      header_behavior = "none"
    }
    cookies_config {
      cookie_behavior = "none"
    }
    query_strings_config {
      query_string_behavior = "none"
    }
  }
}

Gotchas when importing a AWS CloudFront Cache Policy

• Import uses the opaque policy ID, not the human-readable name; find it with `aws cloudfront list-cache-policies` and use the Id field.
• AWS-managed policies such as Managed-CachingOptimized are owned by AWS and cannot be imported or modified; only customer-managed policies are importable.
• The parameters_in_cache_key_and_forwarded_to_origin block with all three nested *_config blocks is required; CloudFront returns header_behavior, cookie_behavior, and query_string_behavior defaulting to none, so include them or plan will diff.
• A cache policy is referenced by aws_cloudfront_distribution cache behaviors but is a standalone resource; importing the policy does not import the distributions that use it.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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