The terraform_remote_state Data Source

The terraform_remote_state data source uses the latest state snapshot from a specified state backend to retrieve the root module output values from some other Terraform configuration.

You can use the terraform_remote_state data source without requiring or configuring a provider. It is always available through a built-in provider with the source address terraform.io/builtin/terraform. That provider does not include any other resources or data sources.

Alternative Ways to Share Data Between Configurations

Sharing data with root module outputs is convenient, but it has drawbacks. Although terraform_remote_state only exposes output values, its user must have access to the entire state snapshot, which often includes some sensitive information.

When possible, we recommend explicitly publishing data for external consumption to a separate location instead of accessing it via remote state. This lets you apply different access controls for shared information and state snapshots.

To share data explicitly between configurations, you can use pairs of managed resource types and data sources in various providers, including (but not limited to) the following:

A key advantage of using a separate explicit configuration store instead of terraform_remote_state is that the data can potentially also be read by systems other than Terraform, such as configuration management or scheduler systems within your compute instances. For that reason, we recommend selecting a configuration store that your other infrastructure could potentially make use of. For example:

• If you wish to share IP addresses and hostnames, you could publish them as normal DNS A, AAAA, CNAME, and SRV records in a private DNS zone and then configure your other infrastructure to refer to that zone so you can find infrastructure objects via your system's built-in DNS resolver.
• If you use HashiCorp Consul then publishing data to the Consul key/value store or Consul service catalog can make that data also accessible via Consul Template or the HashiCorp Nomadtemplate stanza.
• If you use Kubernetes then you can make Config Maps available to your Pods.

Some of the data stores listed above are specifically designed for storing small configuration values, while others are generic blob storage systems. For those generic systems, you can use the jsonencode function and the jsondecode function respectively to store and retrieve structured data.

You can encapsulate the implementation details of retrieving your published configuration data by writing a data-only module containing the necessary data source configuration and any necessary post-processing such as JSON decoding. You can then change that module later if you switch to a different strategy for sharing data between multiple Terraform configurations.

Example Usage (remote Backend)

data "terraform_remote_state" "vpc" {
  backend = "remote"

  config = {
    organization = "hashicorp"
    workspaces = {
      name = "vpc-prod"
    }
  }
}

# Terraform >= 0.12
resource "aws_instance" "foo" {
  # ...
  subnet_id = data.terraform_remote_state.vpc.outputs.subnet_id
}

# Terraform <= 0.11
resource "aws_instance" "foo" {
  # ...
  subnet_id = "${data.terraform_remote_state.vpc.subnet_id}"
}

Example Usage (local Backend)

data "terraform_remote_state" "vpc" {
  backend = "local"

  config = {
    path = "..."
  }
}

# Terraform >= 0.12
resource "aws_instance" "foo" {
  # ...
  subnet_id = data.terraform_remote_state.vpc.outputs.subnet_id
}

# Terraform <= 0.11
resource "aws_instance" "foo" {
  # ...
  subnet_id = "${data.terraform_remote_state.vpc.subnet_id}"
}

Argument Reference

The following arguments are supported:

• backend - (Required) The remote backend to use.

• workspace - (Optional) The Terraform workspace to use, if the backend supports workspaces.

• config - (Optional; object) The configuration of the remote backend. Although this argument is listed as optional, most backends require some configuration.

  The config object can use any arguments that would be valid in the equivalent terraform { backend "<TYPE>" { ... } } block. See the documentation of your chosen backend for details.

  Note: If the backend configuration requires a nested block, specify it here as a normal attribute with an object value. (For example, workspaces = { ... } instead of workspaces { ... }.)

• defaults - (Optional; object) Default values for outputs, in case the state file is empty or lacks a required output.

Attributes Reference

In addition to the above, the following attributes are exported:

• (v0.12+) outputs - An object containing every root-level output in the remote state.
• (<= v0.11) <OUTPUT NAME> - Each root-level output in the remote state appears as a top level attribute on the data source.

Root Outputs Only

Only the root-level output values from the remote state snapshot are exposed for use elsewhere in your module. Resource data and output values from nested modules are not accessible.

If you wish to make a nested module output value accessible as a root module output value, you must explicitly configure a passthrough in the root module. For example:

For example:

module "app" {
  source = "..."
}

output "app_value" {
  # This syntax is for Terraform 0.12 or later.
  value = module.app.example
}

In this example, the output value named example from the "app" module is available as the app_value root module output value. If this configuration didn't include the output "app_value" block then the data would not be accessible via terraform_remote_state.