Building a Terraform Module Scaffold with structkit

#terraform #devops #iac #opensource

Building a Terraform Module Scaffold with structkit

Target: dev.to, /r/devops, /r/Terraform | SEO: terraform module template generator, infrastructure as code scaffolding

TL;DR

If you maintain multiple Terraform modules, you know the pain: every new module starts with copy-pasting the same main.tf, variables.tf, outputs.tf, and .github/ setup. structkit lets you define that structure once in YAML and generate it consistently across your team.

The Problem: Terraform Module Sprawl

As your infrastructure grows, so does your module library. Two things are always true:

New modules start with copy-paste — someone grabs an old module and strips it down
Consistency degrades over time — modules end up with different structures, naming conventions, CI configurations

This causes real pain:

Onboarding engineers spend hours understanding why Module A has a providers.tf but Module B does not
Security reviews find inconsistent IAM patterns across modules
CI pipelines fail because some modules have terratest, others do not

What structkit Does

structkit is a YAML-first scaffolding tool that generates project structures from templates. You define the shape of a project once and structkit materializes it.

pip install structkit

Scaffolding a Terraform Module

Here is a complete structkit.yaml for a standard Terraform module:

files:
  - .tf/{{@ module_name @}}/main.tf:
        content: |
          # {{@ module_name @}} -- {{@ module_description@ }}
          terraform {
            required_version = ">= 1.5"
            required_providers {
              aws = {
                source  = "hashicorp/aws"
                version = "~> 5.0"
              }
            }
          }

      - .tf/{{@ module_name @}}/variables.tf:
          content: |
            variable "name" {
              description = "Name prefix for all resources"
              type        = string
            }

      - .tf/{{@ module_name @}}/outputs.tf:
          content: |
            # Add module outputs here

      - .tf/{{@ module_name @}}/README.md:
          content: |
            # {{module_name}}
            {{module_description}}

            ## Usage
            module "{{module_name}}" {
              source = "./{{module_name}}"
              name   = "my-resource"
            }

      - .github/workflows/terraform.yml:
          content: |
            name: Terraform
            on:
              pull_request:
                branches: [main]
            jobs:
              validate:
                runs-on: ubuntu-latest
                steps:
                  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
                  - uses: hashicorp/setup-terraform@v3
                  - run: terraform init -backend=false
                  - run: terraform validate
                  - run: terraform fmt -check

Generating the Module

structkit generate \
  --config structkit.yaml \
  --var module_name=aws-s3-bucket \
  --var module_description="Opinionated S3 bucket module with versioning and encryption"

Output:

.tf/aws-s3-bucket/
├── main.tf
├── variables.tf
├── outputs.tf
├── README.md
└── .github/workflows/terraform.yml

Every module your team creates has the same CI setup, the same pre-commit hooks, the same README structure.

Team-Wide Standardization

Store templates in a central repository:

yourorg/structkit-templates/
├── terraform-module/structkit.yaml
├── terraform-root/structkit.yaml
├── python-service/structkit.yaml
└── github-action/structkit.yaml

Platform teams own the templates. Product teams consume them. Everyone gets consistency without a manual review process.

Comparing Approaches

Approach	Consistency	Learning curve
Manual copy-paste	Degrades over time	Very low
cookiecutter	Good	Medium
copier	Good (with updates)	Medium-high
structkit	Good	Low (just YAML)

structkit is YAML-first. If you can write YAML (which you already do for Terraform), you can write structkit templates.

What is Next

AI/MCP integration: structkit supports Claude MCP for natural-language scaffolding
GitHub Actions: run structkit in CI to enforce that new modules follow templates