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ADR-012: Local Dev Source Override Pattern for projects/

  • Status: Proposed
  • Date: 2026-02-27
  • Deciders: Cloud Architect, HITL/Manager
  • Migrated from: ADR-XVAL-001

What​

Establish the procedure for switching projects/iam-identity-center/main.tf between live Registry source (oceansoft/iam-identity-center/aws ~> 1.0) and local module source for development and validation purposes. This is a HITL-only action — agents do not mutate this file.

Why​

projects/iam-identity-center/main.tf consumes from the live Registry in production. Local development requires the ability to test changes to modules/iam-identity-center/ against the project layer without a Registry publish cycle. A comment-based toggle already exists in the file — this ADR formalizes the procedure.

How​

# In projects/iam-identity-center/main.tf

module "identity_center" {
  # Production (Registry source -- default):
  source  = "oceansoft/iam-identity-center/aws"
  version = "~> 1.0"

  # Local dev: comment out the two lines above, uncomment below.
  # Note: version argument must be absent with a local path source (Terraform requirement).
  # source = "../../modules/iam-identity-center"
  ...
}

For CI-safe structural validation without source toggle:

TF_CLI_ARGS_init='-backend=false' terraform -chdir=projects/iam-identity-center init
terraform -chdir=projects/iam-identity-center validate

This validates provider schema against the Registry module without running terraform apply.

Consequences​

Benefits​

  1. Local dev can test module changes without a Registry publish cycle
  2. Comment-based toggle is visible in code review — accidental commits of local source are caught
  3. CI-safe validation path avoids source mutation entirely

Tradeoffs​

  1. CI-safe validation only validates provider schema, not module internals — full validation requires local source toggle
  • ADR-013: build:validate and lock file scope to cover projects/
  • ADR-007: Registry source rationale

Coordination Evidence​

  • Cloud Architect log: tmp/terraform-aws/coordination-logs/cloud-architect-2026-02-27-adr-cost-tags.json