Getting Started — DigitalOcean

Everything you need before using any module from terraform-do-modules: installation, API token setup, provider config, remote state, and the variable conventions shared by every module.

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Prerequisites

Tool	Minimum version	Install
Terraform	1.6.0+	developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/install
DigitalOcean provider	2.0+	declared in required_providers
doctl (optional)	any recent	github.com/digitalocean/doctl

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Authentication

Create a Personal Access Token

1. Log in to cloud.digitalocean.com
2. Go to API → Tokens → Generate New Token
3. Give it a name and enable Write scope

Export the token as an environment variable — never hard-code it in .tf files:

export TF_VAR_do_token="dop_v1_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

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Provider configuration

# versions.tf
terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.6.0"

  required_providers {
    digitalocean = {
      source  = "digitalocean/digitalocean"
      version = ">= 2.0"
    }
  }
}

variable "do_token" {
  type      = string
  sensitive = true
}

provider "digitalocean" {
  token = var.do_token
}

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Remote state on Spaces

DigitalOcean Spaces is S3-compatible, so Terraform's s3 backend works with a small configuration adjustment.

1. Create a Spaces bucket and access key

Create a bucket in the DigitalOcean control panel (Spaces → Create Space), then generate a Spaces access key under API → Spaces Keys → Generate New Key.

2. Export the Spaces credentials

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="<spaces-access-key>"
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="<spaces-secret-key>"

3. Add the backend block

terraform {
  backend "s3" {
    endpoint = "https://blr1.digitaloceanspaces.com"   # your Spaces region endpoint
    bucket   = "my-tfstate"
    key      = "prod/terraform.tfstate"
    region   = "us-east-1"   # required placeholder, ignored by Spaces

    skip_credentials_validation = true
    skip_metadata_api_check     = true
    skip_region_validation      = true
    force_path_style            = true
  }
}

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Workflow

# Download providers and initialise the backend
terraform init

# Preview what will change
terraform plan

# Apply changes
terraform apply

# Tear down (use with care in production)
terraform destroy

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Common variables

Every module in terraform-do-modules shares these standard variables:

Variable	Type	Default	Description
name	string	""	Short resource name, e.g. app, cluster
environment	string	""	Environment label — prod, dev, staging
region	string	"blr1"	DigitalOcean region slug
enabled	bool	true	Set to false to skip resource creation
label_order	list	["name","environment"]	Controls label order in resource names
managedby	string	"terraform-do-modules"	Tag identifying the managing team

Available region slugs

Slug	Location
nyc3	New York 3
sfo3	San Francisco 3
ams3	Amsterdam 3
sgp1	Singapore 1
blr1	Bangalore 1
lon1	London 1
fra1	Frankfurt 1
tor1	Toronto 1

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Pinning module versions

Always pin modules to a release tag in production:

source = "git::https://github.com/terraform-do-modules/terraform-digitalocean-kubernetes.git?ref=v1.0.0"

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Next steps

• DigitalOcean Recipes → — end-to-end examples combining multiple modules
• DigitalOcean Module Reference → — full list of available modules