How to fix Error importing resource in Terraform

Check your provider block in your Terraform configuration. For Google Cloud, it should include either credentials or access_token:

terraform {
  required_providers {
    google = {
      source  = "hashicorp/google"
      version = "~> 5.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "google" {
  project = "my-project"
  region  = "us-central1"
  # Either option:
  # credentials = file("/path/to/service-account-key.json")
  # OR
  # access_token = var.gcp_access_token
}

If credentials aren't set, continue to step 2.

For local development with Google Cloud, run:

gcloud auth application-default login

This creates local credentials that Terraform will use automatically. A browser window will open for authentication. Approve the permissions to generate the credentials file at ~/.config/gcloud/application_default_credentials.json.

If you have a service account key file (JSON), export it as an environment variable:

# On Linux/macOS
export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/path/to/service-account-key.json"

# On Windows PowerShell
$env:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS = "C:\path\to\service-account-key.json"

Verify the path is correct and the file exists:

cat $GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS | jq .

Before running terraform import, define an empty resource block for the resource you're importing:

resource "google_compute_instance" "example" {
  # Empty - will be populated by import
}

This gives Terraform a place to store the imported state.

Different resource types use different ID formats. Check the provider documentation for the correct format:

# Google Compute Instance: zone/instance-name
terraform import google_compute_instance.example us-central1-a/my-instance

# Google Cloud Storage Bucket: bucket-name
terraform import google_storage_bucket.example my-bucket

# Google SQL Instance: project:instance-name
terraform import google_sql_database_instance.example my-project:my-instance

Refer to the Terraform Google Provider documentation for the specific ID format for your resource type.

After running terraform import, check that the state was updated:

terraform state show google_compute_instance.example

You should see the imported resource's attributes. If the import succeeded but attributes are missing, you may need to add them to your configuration.