import-existing-project

name

import-existing-project

description

Generate Terraform configuration for an existing Ory Network project. Inventories the project via the Ory Console and Admin APIs, builds terraform import blocks with the correct per-resource import IDs, generates configuration with terraform plan -generate-config-out, and refines it until terraform plan converges to no changes. Use when adopting Terraform for an Ory Network project that was configured through the Console UI, CLI, or API, or when asked to reverse-engineer .tf files from a live project.

Import an existing Ory Network project into Terraform

Onboard a live Ory Network project into Terraform so that terraform plan reports no changes. Terraform's built-in import blocks and terraform plan -generate-config-out do the mechanical part; this skill fills in the Ory-specific knowledge: where each resource is discovered, how each import ID is built, which attributes to prune from generated config, and which secrets can never be read back.

Safety first: every step below is read-only against Ory until the final terraform apply, and that apply only records imports (0 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy). Never run terraform destroy in the working directory — the imported resources are real. To undo a mistaken import, use terraform state rm <address>; it removes the resource from state without touching the live project.

Prerequisites

• Terraform >= 1.5 (import blocks and -generate-config-out).

• curl and jq (used by the inventory script).

• A workspace API key (ory_wak_..., create under Workspace Settings > API keys) and, to cover OAuth2 clients / JWKS / trusted issuers, a project API key (ory_pat_...).

• The project UUID. List a workspace's projects with the workspace API key:

  curl -sH "Authorization: Bearer $ORY_WORKSPACE_API_KEY" \
    "${ORY_CONSOLE_API_URL:-https://api.console.ory.sh}/workspaces/$ORY_WORKSPACE_ID/projects" \
    | jq -r '.projects[] | "\(.id)  \(.slug)  \(.name)"'
  

  Use this workspace-scoped endpoint, not GET /projects (that path needs a browser session token and returns 403 for an API key). The ory list projects CLI also works, but only against Ory's production console with an interactive ory auth session — it ignores ORY_CONSOLE_API_URL, so it cannot reach other environments, and it rejects --workspace when ORY_WORKSPACE_API_KEY is set. The curl call above is environment-agnostic.

Export the credentials as environment variables; the provider and the inventory script both read them:

export ORY_WORKSPACE_API_KEY=ory_wak_...
export ORY_PROJECT_API_KEY=ory_pat_...     # optional but recommended
export ORY_PROJECT_ID=<project-uuid>
export ORY_PROJECT_SLUG=<project-slug>

Non-default environments (e.g. staging) also need endpoint overrides, both for the script and the provider block: ORY_CONSOLE_API_URL (default https://api.console.ory.sh) and ORY_PROJECT_API_URL (a printf template, default https://%s.projects.oryapis.com).

Workflow

1. Inventory the project and build import blocks

Run the bundled script from an empty working directory:

<path-to-skill>/scripts/generate-imports.sh > imports.tf

It dumps the project revision (GET /projects/{id}), walks every list endpoint, and emits one import block per importable resource with the correct ID format (see the reference table below). Data-plane objects (identities, relationship tuples) and unrecoverable ones (project API key values) come out as explanatory comments instead of import blocks.

Review imports.tf and delete blocks for resources you do not want Terraform to manage. Everything Terraform imports it will also plan to change or destroy later, so import deliberately.

2. Scaffold the working directory

# versions.tf
terraform {
  required_providers {
    ory = { source = "ory/ory" }
  }
}

# provider.tf — keys come from the ORY_* environment variables
provider "ory" {
  project_id   = "<project-uuid>"
  project_slug = "<project-slug>"
}

Setting project_id/project_slug on the provider matters: several import IDs (social/SAML providers, email templates, single-segment forms) resolve the project from provider configuration.

3. Generate configuration

terraform init
terraform plan -generate-config-out=generated.tf

Expect the "Config generation is experimental" warning; that is fine. If a resource fails to generate (e.g. conflicting or unknown attributes), remove its import block, note it, and hand-write that resource later.

4. Refine the generated config

generated.tf is a starting point, not the final code. Apply these rules:

• Drop null attributes and empty strings/lists — they are noise and some (write-only arguments) are invalid to set explicitly.

• Drop computed/read-only attributes the API owns (id, timestamps, revision IDs, state, verification statuses). If Terraform errors with "Invalid or unknown key" or "value must be configured only by the provider", delete that attribute.

• Re-supply secrets. The API never returns SMTP connection URIs, social provider client secrets, or OAuth2 client secrets (values come back masked or absent). Wire them to variable blocks marked sensitive, or use the write-only variants (client_secret_wo, smtp_connection_uri_wo, ...) with *_wo_version to keep them out of state entirely. courier_http_request_config_auth_basic_auth_password and courier_http_request_config_auth_api_key_value behave the same way but have no _wo variant, so they must come from a sensitive variable. smtp_connection_uri_wo is the only write-only argument on ory_project_config.

• Populate ory_project_config yourself — it generates as an empty shell. The provider intentionally refreshes only attributes already tracked in state (so unmanaged settings never drift), and a fresh import tracks nothing. -generate-config-out therefore emits an all-null block for this resource. Delete the null lines and add the attributes you want Terraform to own, copying current values from the revision dump (GET /projects/{id} under .services.identity.config, .services.oauth2.config, .services.permission.config, and .services.account_experience.config). The first plan shows those attributes as additions (+) even when the values match the server, and the first apply just records them in state because the PATCH is idempotent. Prefer the spec-derived attribute names over deprecated aliases (run scripts/migrate-deprecated-attrs.sh from the provider repo if needed).

  Five attributes do not sit where the dump suggests, so copying by name fails:

  Attribute	Where the dump holds it

5. Converge

terraform plan

Five ory_project_config attributes never converge if you set them empty, because the server substitutes its own default or refuses to clear the key. If the dump shows one of these as empty or absent, omit the attribute rather than writing an empty value, otherwise this step cannot finish: account_experience_enabled_locales, selfservice_methods_passkey_config_rp_origins, webauthn_rp_origins, selfservice_methods_totp_config_issuer, and selfservice_methods_captcha_config_allowed_domains.

Iterate on the config until the plan reports only imports: Plan: N to import, 0 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy. Then:

terraform apply   # records the imports in state; changes nothing remotely
terraform plan    # must now report: No changes.

If the second plan still shows diffs, fix the config (not the project) and re-plan. Typical causes are listed under Troubleshooting.

6. Aftercare

• Keep the import blocks in the repo (they are idempotent and document provenance) or delete them after the apply — either works.
• Add state hygiene: the state now contains project config and possibly private JWKS keys; store it in an encrypted backend, not in git.
• Commit the refined .tf files; secrets stay in variables / *_wo arguments.

Resource reference

Console API = https://api.console.ory.sh with the workspace API key. Project API = https://{slug}.projects.oryapis.com with the project API key.

Resource	Discover via	Import ID
ory_workspace	.workspace_id on the project payload (the script emits this one commented out)	{workspace_id}
ory_project	GET /workspaces/{ws}/projects (console)	{project_id}
ory_project_config	GET /projects/{id} (console)	{project_id}
ory_custom_domain	GET /projects/{id}/cname (console)	{project_id}/{domain_id}
ory_event_stream	GET /projects/{id}/eventstreams (console)	{project_id}/{stream_id}
ory_organization	GET /projects/{id}/organizations (console)	{project_id}/{org_id}
ory_project_api_key	GET /projects/{id}/tokens (console)	{project_id}/{key_id} — value unrecoverable
ory_social_provider	revision: .services.identity.config.selfservice.methods.oidc.config.providers[]	{provider_id} (e.g. google)
ory_saml_provider	revision: ...methods.saml.config.providers[]	{provider_id}
ory_action	revision: ...selfservice.flows.<flow>.<timing>...hooks[] where hook == "web_hook"	after: {project_id}:{flow}:after:{auth_method}:{METHOD}:{url}; before: {project_id}:{flow}:before:{METHOD}:{url}
ory_email_template	revision: ...courier.templates.<base>.<valid|invalid>.email with non-empty subject or /

Single-segment forms ({domain_id}, {org_id}, {key_id}, {stream_id}, {set_id}) also work when the provider block sets project_id; prefer the explicit {project_id}/... form in generated files.

Caveats

• Identity schemas cannot be imported. They are immutable; leave existing schemas unmanaged and manage only newly created schemas. Read a single schema with the ory_identity_schema data source, or list every schema the project can see with ory_identity_schemas. The project revision lists only schemas explicitly added to the project, so the plural data source and the console GET /identity-schemas endpoint see workspace-scoped schemas the revision omits.
• Secrets never round-trip. SMTP connection URI, social/SAML client secrets, OAuth2 client secrets, tokenizer template keys: re-supply via variables or write-only *_wo arguments. Until you do, some of these show a perpetual diff or import as empty.
• ory_project_api_key values exist only at creation time. Importing one yields a resource whose value is null; rotating it through Terraform means destroy + create (a brand-new key).
• ory_trusted_oauth2_jwt_grant_issuer.jwk forces a one-time replace on import. The public-key jwk is required, forces replacement when changed, and is never returned by the read endpoint, so import leaves it empty. Supply the issuer's original public JWK in config; the first apply then destroys and re-creates the trust once to store it (a functional no-op re-registration — the issuer/subject/scope are unchanged). Plans after that first apply are clean. If a transient re-registration is unacceptable, leave the issuer unmanaged.
• Default hydra.* JWKS sets (hydra.openid.id-token, hydra.jwt.access-token) are system-managed — do not import them. Importing any JWKS puts private key material into state.
• Identities and relationship tuples are data, not configuration. Import only the handful that are genuinely config-like (service accounts, seed tuples).
• ory_social_provider.auto_link is write-only in the API; an import will not populate it. Re-add it to config manually where used (enterprise feature).
• B2B SSO providers come back as ory_social_provider with an organization_id. An OIDC provider scoped to an organization lives in the same ...methods.oidc.config.providers[] array as a plain social provider, so the inventory finds both. Import the matching ory_organization as well and replace the generated literal UUID with a reference (organization_id = ory_organization.<name>.id) so Terraform orders the create and the destroy correctly. Dropping the attribute clears the link and leaves the organization with no SSO provider (issue #339).

Troubleshooting

• project_id forces replacement after import — the project_id in the resource/provider differs from the imported one. Align them; nothing needs to be recreated.
• Perpetual diff on a secret attribute — the API returns the value masked (or not at all). Move it to the write-only *_wo variant or set the config value to match what you originally provisioned.
• 403 feature_not_available — the attribute or resource is gated by a higher plan (e.g. use_auto_link, event streams). Remove it from config or have the feature enabled for the project.
• Import of a before-timing action fails with Invalid Import ID — the URL's own colons broke the import ID parser in provider versions before the fix for issue #280. Upgrade the provider; both documented before formats then work.
• Cannot import non-existent remote object — three causes, in order of likelihood. First, the inventory went stale: the resource was deleted between running the script and the plan. Remove that import block, or re-run the script. Second, the project is soft deleted: GET /projects/{id} still answers HTTP 200 with state = "deleted", so every request succeeds while nothing can be imported. The script now refuses to run against such a project. Third, for an ory_action on login, registration, or settings, the auth-method segment does not match where the hook actually lives. See the flat after hooks caveat above.
• A resource silently disappears from state on a later plan — the provider now removes a resource from state instead of erroring when the API reports it gone, for ory_project, ory_project_config, ory_workspace, ory_organization, ory_oauth2_client, ory_oidc_dynamic_client, and ory_trusted_oauth2_jwt_grant_issuer. After onboarding, deleting one of these in the Console makes the next plan propose a create, not an error. That is expected; re-apply to restore it, or remove it from config.
• 429 Too Many Requests during the converge apply — a bulk import of many ory_oauth2_client or ory_identity resources can exceed the request budget. The provider retries a 429 with exponential backoff and jitter, 6 times by default. Raise on the provider block (maximum 20, or set ) for a very large project.