Managing Docker with Terraform

Terraform is usually associated with cloud infrastructure, but the Docker provider lets you treat images and containers as first-class Terraform resources. That’s especially useful when you want a repeatable local environment (or a small container setup) that’s defined declaratively and can be recreated consistently.

This approach is a good fit when you want:

• A reproducible demo/dev environment you can spin up and tear down reliably
• Clear visibility into what changes will happen via plan
• A single IaC workflow for provisioning

In the full tutorial, we cover:

• How the Docker provider works and how to configure it
• Managing images and containers (docker_image, docker_container) in a Terraform-friendly way
• What changes trigger updates vs. recreations (and what that means for safety)
• Common pitfalls (state, drift, local machine differences) and how to avoid them

➡️ Read the full article on our blog:

https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-docker