Get started with Terraform and Firebase

Firebase is beginning to support Terraform . If you're on a team that wants to automate and standardize creating Firebase projects with specific resources provisioned and services enabled, then using Terraform with Firebase can be a good fit for you.

The basic workflow for using Terraform with Firebase includes the following:

• Creating and customizing a Terraform configuration file (a .tf file) which specifies the infrastructure you want to provision (that is, resources you want to provision and the services you want to enable).

• Using gcloud CLI commands that interface with Terraform to provision the infrastructure specified in the .tf file.

What can you do with Terraform and Firebase?

The example generalized workflow in this guide is creating a new Firebase project with an Android app. But you can do a lot more with Terraform, such as:

• Delete and modify existing infrastructure using Terraform.

• Manage product-specific configuration and tasks using Terraform, like:

  • Enabling Firebase Authentication sign-in providers.
  • Creating Cloud Storage buckets or database instances and deploying Firebase Security Rules for them.
  • Creating Firebase App Hosting backends, builds, and other related resources.

You can use standard Terraform config files and commands to accomplish all these tasks. And to help you with this, we've provided sample Terraform config files for several common use cases.

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Generalized workflow for using Terraform with Firebase

Prerequisites

This guide is an introduction to using Terraform with Firebase, so it assumes basic proficiency with Terraform. Make sure that you've completed the following prerequisites before starting this workflow.

• Install Terraform and familiarize yourself with Terraform using their official tutorials.

• Install the Google Cloud CLI ( gcloud CLI ). Login using a user account or a service account .

  View requirements for user accounts and service accounts

  • If using a user account, you must have accepted the Firebase Terms of Service (Firebase ToS). You have accepted the Firebase ToS if you can view a Firebase project in the Firebase console
  • For Terraform to take certain actions (for example, create projects), the following must be true:
    • The user or service account must have the applicable IAM access for those actions.
    • If the user or service account is part of a Google Cloud organization, then the org policies must allow the account to take those actions.