How to Import an AWS EventBridge Target into Terraform

Import AWS EventBridge Target with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Amazon EventBridge resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live AWS EventBridge Target 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_cloudwatch_event_target.nightly
  id = "default/nightly-job/lambda-target"
}

Example aws_cloudwatch_event_target configuration

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

resource "aws_cloudwatch_event_target" "nightly" {
  rule      = "nightly-job"
  target_id = "lambda-target"
  arn       = "arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:123456789012:function:nightly-batch"
}

Gotchas when importing a AWS EventBridge Target

• The import ID is composite: EVENT-BUS-NAME/RULE-NAME/TARGET-ID. On a custom bus the bus name is required; on the default bus older provider versions accept RULE-NAME/TARGET-ID.
• A target is meaningless without its rule; import the parent aws_cloudwatch_event_rule first and reference it via the rule argument.
• Invoking a Lambda or SNS target also needs a permission grant (aws_lambda_permission or an SNS policy) that EventBridge can assume; that is a separate resource.
• target_id is a free-form label you assigned, not the target ARN; the two are distinct fields in the import ID and the resource block.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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