/provider-ephemeral-resources

name: provider-ephemeral-resources
description: >-
  Implement Terraform provider ephemeral resources with the Plugin
  Framework: the Open/Renew/Close lifecycle, ephemeral schema design,
  registration via EphemeralResources, renewal for expiring credentials,
  and how ephemeral values flow into write-only attributes and provider
  configuration. Use when adding an ephemeral resource, exposing
  secrets/tokens/certificates that must never persist in state or plan,
  deciding between an ephemeral resource and a data source, or wiring
  short-lived credentials from one provider into another.
license: MPL-2.0
metadata:
  lifecycle-status: active
  copyright: Copyright IBM Corp. 2026
  version: "0.0.1"

Terraform Provider Ephemeral Resources

Ephemeral resources (Terraform 1.10+) produce values that are **never persisted to state or plan**. They exist for exactly one job: handing secrets — tokens, generated passwords, short-lived certificates, decrypted values — to the parts of a configuration that need them, without writing them to disk. Any data source that returns a sensitive value is a candidate to be (or to also exist as) an ephemeral resource.

Official docs: [Ephemeral Resources](https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/plugin/framework/ephemeral-resources).

When to Use One

| Situation | Use | |---|---| | Read-only lookup of non-sensitive data | Data source | | Value is sensitive and only needed at apply time (DB password for a provider block, token for a write-only attribute) | Ephemeral resource | | Sensitive value that downstream *managed resources* must store (e.g. as an attribute) | Regular resource/data source — but pair with write-only attributes where possible | | Credential that expires mid-operation (STS-style tokens, short-TTL leases) | Ephemeral resource with `Renew` |

Ephemeral results can be used in provider configuration, write-only attributes, provisioner configuration, and other ephemeral contexts — but not in regular attributes, because those persist to state.

Lifecycle

Terraform calls up to three methods per operation:

• **`Open`** (required) — fetch or create the value; runs during plan

and/or apply whenever the result is needed. There is no state to refresh and nothing to import.

• **`Renew`** (optional) — called when the wall clock passes the

`RenewAt` returned by `Open`/`Renew`, for values that expire while Terraform is still running. Renew cannot return a new result — it can only extend/refresh what `Open` produced (e.g. re-lease the same credential); if the value itself changes on renewal, the API is not renewable in this sense and `Open` must return a longer-lived value.

• **`Close`** (optional) — called when Terraform is done with the value;

revoke leases or delete temporary credentials here.

`Open` can pass bytes forward via `resp.Private`; `Renew` and `Close` receive them — use this for lease IDs needed to renew/revoke.

Implementation

var (
    _ ephemeral.EphemeralResource              = &tokenEphemeralResource{}
    _ ephemeral.EphemeralResourceWithConfigure = &tokenEphemeralResource{}
    _ ephemeral.EphemeralResourceWithRenew     = &tokenEphemeralResource{}
    _ ephemeral.EphemeralResourceWithClose     = &tokenEphemeralResource{}
)

func NewTokenEphemeralResource() ephemeral.EphemeralResource {
    return &tokenEphemeralResource{}
}

type tokenEphemeralResource struct {
    client *examplecloud.Client
}

type tokenEphemeralResourceModel struct {
    RoleName types.String `tfsdk:"role_name"`
    Token    types.String `tfsdk:"token"`
    LeaseID  types.String `tfsdk:"lease_id"`
}

func (r *tokenEphemeralResource) Metadata(_ context.Context, req ephemeral.MetadataRequest, resp *ephemeral.MetadataResponse) {
    resp.TypeName = req.ProviderTypeName + "_token"
}

func (r *tokenEphemeralResource) Schema(_ context.Context, _ ephemeral.SchemaRequest, resp *ephemeral.SchemaResponse) {
    resp.Schema = schema.Schema{
        Attributes: map[string]schema.Attribute{
            "role_name": schema.StringAttribute{
                Required:            true,
                MarkdownDescription: "Role to obtain a token for.",
            },
            "token": schema.StringAttribute{
                Computed:            true,
                Sensitive:           true,
                MarkdownDescription: "The issued token. Never persisted to state.",
            },
            "lease_id": schema.StringAttribute{
                Computed:            true,
                MarkdownDescription: "Identifier of the token lease.",
            },
        },
    }
}

func (r *tokenEphemeralResource) Open(ctx context.Context, req ephemeral.OpenRequest, resp *ephemeral.OpenResponse) {
    var data tokenEphemeralResourceModel
    resp.Diagnostics.Append(req.Config.Get(ctx, &data)...)
    if resp.Diagnostics.HasError() {
        return
    }

    lease, err := r.client.IssueToken(ctx, data.RoleName.ValueString())
    if err != nil {
        resp.Diagnostics.AddError(
            "Error opening Token",
            fmt.Sprintf("issuing token for role (%s): %s", data.RoleName.ValueString(), err),
        )
        return
    }

    data.Token = types.StringValue(lease.Token)
    data.LeaseID = types.StringValue(lease.ID)

    resp.RenewAt = lease.ExpiresAt.Add(-2 * time.Minute) // renew with margin
    resp.Private.SetKey(ctx, "lease_id", []byte(lease.ID))
    resp.Diagnostics.Append(resp.Result.Set(ctx, &data)...)
}

func (r *tokenEphemeralResource) Renew(ctx context.Context, req ephemeral.RenewRequest, resp *ephemeral.RenewResponse) {
    leaseID, diags := req.Private.GetKey(ctx, "lease_id")
    resp.Diagnostics.Append(diags...)
    if resp.Diagnostics.HasError() {
        return
    }

    lease, err := r.client.RenewLease(ctx, string(leaseID))
    if err != nil {
        resp.Diagnostics.AddError("Error renewing Token", err.Error())
        return
    }
    resp.RenewAt = lease.ExpiresAt.Add(-2 * time.Minute)
}

func (r *to