Quick Start

Get up and running with sls.tf in 5 minutes

1. Add sls.tf to your project

Add sls.tf as a Git submodule inside your Terraform project: 

git submodule add https://github.com/sls-tf/sls.tf.git modules/sls.tf
git submodule update --init --recursive

2. Create your Terraform root

Point the module at your existing serverless.yml:

main.tf

terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.0"
  required_providers {
    aws = {
      source  = "hashicorp/aws"
      version = "~> 5.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1"
}

module "serverless" {
  source      = "./modules/sls.tf"
  config_path = "${path.root}/serverless.yml"
}

3. Write a minimal serverless.yml

serverless.yml

service: hello-world
provider:
  name: aws
  runtime: nodejs20.x
  region: us-east-1
  stage: dev

functions:
  hello:
    handler: index.handler
    events:
      - http:
          path: /hello
          method: get

Prefer AWS SAM?

sls.tf reads AWS SAM templates too — a frequent choice for teams already using sam local. Point config_path at your template.yaml and set config_format = "sam"; the rest of the workflow is identical.

main.tf

module "serverless" {
  source = "git::https://github.com/sls-tf/sls.tf.git?ref=v0.3.16"

  config_path   = "${path.root}/template.yaml"
  config_format = "sam"
}

template.yaml

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Transform: AWS::Serverless-2016-10-31

Globals:
  Function:
    Runtime: nodejs20.x
    Timeout: 10

Resources:
  Hello:
    Type: AWS::Serverless::Function
    Properties:
      Handler: index.handler
      Events:
        HelloApi:
          Type: Api
          Properties:
            Path: /hello
            Method: get

See the SAM template example for a complete walkthrough, including Parameters and sam_template_parameters overrides.

4. Deploy

terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply

Terraform will create the Lambda function, IAM execution role, API Gateway REST API, and all required permissions — everything sls.tf infers from your serverless.yml.

Access outputs

After terraform apply, retrieve the API endpoint and function ARNs: 

terraform output -json

# Example output:
# {
#   "api_gateway_invoke_url": "https://abc123.execute-api.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/dev",
#   "function_arns": { "hello": "arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:..." },
#   "function_names": { "hello": "hello-world-dev-hello" }
# }

Next steps