Prevent Destroy Data

Adds prevent_destroy = true to data-bearing resources. Blocks accidental deletion.

Why this rule exists

Accidentally destroying an S3 bucket, RDS instance, DynamoDB table, or EFS file system can cause data loss that is difficult or impossible to recover from. A single terraform destroy or a careless resource rename can trigger deletion of production data.

Terraform's prevent_destroy lifecycle argument is the built-in safeguard. But it cannot be passed as a variable into a module. Every team using upstream terraform-aws-modules must either fork the module to add it, or rely on review checklists.

Related Terraform and OpenTofu issues

Limitations this rule answers

Per-module pages under Workarounds where this rule is the answer, each with the native workaround first and the diff the rule makes:

• DynamoDB table: terraform destroy deleted a DynamoDB table
• RDS: terraform destroy deleted a production database
• RDS Aurora: terraform destroy deleted an Aurora cluster
• S3 bucket: terraform destroy deleted a production S3 bucket

Affected resources

What this rule does

Adds a lifecycle { prevent_destroy = true } block to each matching resource. Terraform and OpenTofu will refuse to destroy these resources during terraform destroy or resource replacement.

Before and after

Before (upstream module):

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "this" {
  # ... resource configuration ...

  tags = var.tags
}

After (with Prevent Destroy Data applied):

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "this" {
  # ... resource configuration ...

  tags = var.tags

  lifecycle {
    prevent_destroy = true
  }
}

The only change is the rule transformation. All existing arguments, outputs, and module behavior remain identical.

The example above is illustrative. To see this rule run for real, open it in the Rules Playground — it applies lifecycle_prevent_destroy_data to a reviewed upstream module that actually declares the resources this rule targets, and shows the diff the registry would serve. No account needed.

Known limits

• Does not cover aws_redshift_cluster, aws_elasticache_cluster, aws_neptune_cluster, or any other stateful resource not listed in affected resources. aws_rds_cluster and aws_elasticache_replication_group joined the defaults in pofix 0.21 and are covered.
• Does not prevent deletion of S3 objects inside the bucket, only the bucket resource itself.
• For prevent_destroy, add means ensure this value, not add it if absent. A resource that explicitly declares prevent_destroy = false is rewritten to true; before pofix 0.21 it was left unprotected while the run still reported the rule as applied. A value that is not a true/false literal is left alone and warned about instead of being rewritten.
• Only .tf and .tofu files are read. Modules written in JSON syntax (.tf.json, .tofu.json) are left untouched.
• Only the module's own directory and its first-level modules/* submodules are processed. Modules that this module calls by source URL are separate downloads and are handled on their own request.

Compliance framework support

This rule is not a compliance control. It supports these framework objectives as an operational safeguard:

Default configuration

These are the values the rule ships with. They are not settable from a module source URL: ?rules= carries rule names only, so a per-request enable uses exactly the defaults below. Your organization sets them per rule, in its Baseline or in a ruleset, from the Operational Rules page; see Baseline rules and rulesets.

The rule's definition

The HCL this rule is written in - its parameters, their shipped defaults, and the transformers it runs - is published at lifecycle_prevent_destroy_data, alongside every other selectable rule.

How to enable

On a framework host, per request:

Add ?rules=lifecycle_prevent_destroy_data to your HTTPS module source, using the id exactly as written.

module "example" {
  source = "https://soc2.compliance.tf/terraform-aws-modules/s3-bucket/aws?version=5.0.0&rules=lifecycle_prevent_destroy_data"
}

A ?rules= list is either all bare names, which replace your organization's rules for that download, or all - prefixed names, which subtract from them. Mixing the two is refused with a 400 rather than silently treated as a replacement. To add this rule on top of your organization's rules instead, use ?add_rules=lifecycle_prevent_destroy_data; a bare ?rules= list cannot be combined with it, because a bare list already replaced the set there was something to add to.

The + add prefix was removed. It reached the registry only when written %2B, and a literal + in a query string decodes to a space everywhere, so ?rules=+lifecycle_prevent_destroy_data arrived as a bare name with a leading space — one step from silently replacing your organization's rules. Any +, in either spelling, is now a 400 naming ?add_rules=.

On your organization's host:

Add the rule to the organization's Baseline, which applies to every module served from the bare organization form <alias>.compliance.tf/<namespace>/<name>/<provider>, or to a named ruleset that one module selects with ?ruleset=<name> on the HTTPS form of that address. A project environment (<alias>.compliance.tf/<project>/<env>/<module>) serves the rules frozen in its bound snapshot instead: there the rule goes into the config draft and reaches the environment by promotion. On both organization forms ?rules= and ?add_rules= are refused with a 400 — including the subtractive - prefix — rather than dropped, so you cannot mistake an ignored override for an applied one. Change the configuration, not the URL. See Baseline rules and rulesets for the configuration flow, and registry resolution for how the address forms differ.

Break-glass path

On a framework host, add ?rules=-lifecycle_prevent_destroy_data to the module source URL and run terraform init -upgrade to fetch a copy without this rule. The copy in .terraform/modules/ stays until the next upgrade, so remove the override when you are done. On your organization's host the parameter is refused with a 400 rather than ignored. The rule comes from the organization's configuration: a Baseline rule applies to every module served from the bare organization form, so an admin disables it for the duration of the operation, or keeps it out of the Baseline and in a ruleset that only the modules needing protection select. On a project environment the posture is the bound snapshot and its waivers. See Baseline rules and rulesets.

Failure modes