How to Import an AWS Step Functions Activity into Terraform

Import AWS Step Functions Activity with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the AWS Step Functions resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live AWS Step Functions Activity 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_sfn_activity.example
  id = "arn:aws:states:eu-west-1:123456789098:activity:example"
}

Example aws_sfn_activity configuration

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

resource "aws_sfn_activity" "example" {
  name = "example"

  tags = {
    Environment = "production"
  }
}

Gotchas when importing a AWS Step Functions Activity

• An activity is imported by its ARN, not its name; the ARN embeds the region and account, so import it into the matching provider region.
• name is force-new and the activity ARN is immutable once created; renaming after import destroys and recreates the activity, which orphans any pending task tokens.
• Activities are referenced by a state machine's Resource field for activity tasks but are a separate resource from aws_sfn_state_machine; importing one does not import the other.
• Step Functions activities only carry a name and tags, so most drift after import comes from tags rather than configuration.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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