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Custom Providers

Overview​

The Custom Provider feature enables you to integrate your Terraform providers into the StackGen platform, even if those providers are not natively supported. This gives your teams the flexibility to use any infrastructure resource while keeping the core StackGen system lightweight and maintainable.

Why Use Custom Providers?​

If you are an enterprise user, the Custom Provider feature will give you the flexibility to use custom Terraform providers to manage your internal or private resources. These providers are often not publicly available, making it difficult for StackGen to support them directly. Custom Providers address this gap by allowing you to bring your own provider logic.

Using the custom provider feature involves two steps:

  1. Create a Custom Terraform Provider Locally
  2. Add Custom Provider to your Topology

Step 1. Create a Custom Terraform Provider Locally​

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To create and use a custom Terraform provider locally, follow these steps:

1. Clone or Build Your Provider​

To clone or build your custom provider, you can:

2. Start your Local Provider Service​

To start your local provider service, run the following command:

cd docker-compose  
docker compose up

Then register a user:

curl -X POST localhost:19090/signup \
-d '{"username":"education", "password":"test123"}'

3. Update Your Terraform Configuration​

Edit your ~/.terraformrc file to support local provider installation by running the following command:

provider_installation {
  filesystem_mirror {
    path = "/Users/{YOUR_USERNAME}/.terraform.d/plugins"
  }
  direct {
    exclude = ["localhost/*/*"]
  }
}

Replace {YOUR_USERNAME} with your actual system username.

4. Build and install the Provider​

Run the command below:

go build -o terraform-provider-hashicups  
mkdir -p ~/.terraform.d/plugins/localhost/hashicups/1.0.0/darwin_arm64  
mv terraform-provider-hashicups ~/.terraform.d/plugins/localhost/hashicups/1.0.0/darwin_arm64/  
go install .

Step 2. Add Custom Provider to your Topology​

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Once your provider is ready and installed, you’ll need to add it to your Topology. Follow these steps to add a custom provider to your Custom Module:

1. Add a custom provider to your Topology​

  1. From the StackGen Home page, navigate to appStacks > select your appStack > Topology > + Add New Resource.

  2. Click the + icon next to the Custom Modules drop-down.

  3. Click + Add Custom Provider. addcustomproviders

  4. Paste the following code in the input text box under provider configuration:

    terraform {
    required_providers {
        hashicups = {
        source = "localhost/education/hashicups"
        }
    }
    }

    provider "hashicups" {
    host     = "http://localhost:19090"
    username = "education"
    password = "test123"
    }

The input fields for the code blocks are as follows:​

  • terraform block: This block defines the required provider for your Terraform configuration.

    • required_providers tells Terraform which provider plugins your configuration depends on.
    • Here, the provider is hashicups, a custom provider (not an official one).
    • source = "localhost/education/hashicups" tells Terraform to look for the provider locally under the namespace education and the provider name hashicups.

    Think of a provider as a plugin that lets Terraform talk to an external system. In this case, it's the HashiCups app, which is a demo app by HashiCorp that is often used for teaching provider development.

  • provider block: This configures the connection details for the hashicups provider.

    • host is the URL of the HashiCups backend API, running locally on port 19090.
    • username and password are used to authenticate with the HashiCups service.

2. Verify Your Integration​

When you export the topology, the provider configuration will be saved in the custom_provider.tf file inside the module folder.

Custom Provider.tf

You can now run the following to apply your changes and verify if your setup works:

terraform init    # Sets things up  
terraform plan    # Shows what will happen  
terraform apply   # Executes the plan

Role Based Access Control​

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Custom Cloud Provider access is dependent on the scopes used for your Custom Modules.

  • If you have a custom module that is shared at an Enterprise level, the custom provider would be available enterprise wide.
  • If you're creating the custom module at the Team level, custom provider will be shared with your team.
  • If you've created a custom module in your Personal Workspace, it will only be visible to you and the same visibility is set for your custom provider.

Learn more about RBAC for custom modules.

Custom Providers let you extend our platform to support niche, private, or internal infrastructure tools via Terraform. This allows for rapid innovation and local control without bloating StackGen’s native provider list.

For help or troubleshooting, refer to the Terraform provider development docs or reach out via our support channels.

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