How to Import an AWS SNS Topic into Terraform

Import AWS SNS Topic with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Amazon SNS resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live AWS SNS Topic 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_sns_topic.alerts
  id = "arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:alerts"
}

Example aws_sns_topic configuration

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

resource "aws_sns_topic" "alerts" {
  name = "alerts"
}

Gotchas when importing a AWS SNS Topic

• Unlike most AWS resources, the SNS topic import ID is the full ARN, not the name.
• Subscriptions import separately as aws_sns_topic_subscription, and pending (unconfirmed) subscriptions cannot be imported.
• The topic policy is a JSON document; copy it exactly to avoid a diff.
• FIFO topics carry a .fifo suffix in the name and require fifo_topic = true.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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