How to Import an Google Artifact Registry Repository into Terraform

Import Google Artifact Registry Repository with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Artifact Registry resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live Google Artifact Registry Repository to managed Terraform.

terraback scan all gcp --project my-gcp-project

terraback gcp 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 = google_artifact_registry_repository.docker
  id = "projects/my-project/locations/us-central1/repositories/my-repo"
}

Example google_artifact_registry_repository configuration

Here is a realistic Google Artifact Registry Repository block. Terraback generates a fuller version from your actual resource attributes; this is a minimal, valid starting point.

resource "google_artifact_registry_repository" "docker" {
  repository_id = "my-repo"
  location      = "us-central1"
  format        = "DOCKER"
  description   = "Container images"
}

Gotchas when importing a Google Artifact Registry Repository

• Repositories are regional; the import ID always includes a locations/<region> segment, and the final segment is the repository_id, not a display name.
• format (DOCKER, MAVEN, NPM, etc.) is immutable; if it does not match reality Terraform plans a destroy and recreate.
• IAM bindings are managed separately as google_artifact_registry_repository_iam_* resources and are not imported with the repository.
• Multi-region locations such as us, europe, and asia are valid location values; use the exact value from the resource name.

Doing it manually with terraform import

The native approach is to write the google_artifact_registry_repository block by hand, then run terraform import google_artifact_registry_repository.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 Google Cloud resources