Stateless Tofu

[abitrolly]

I want to update YouTube video descriptions collaboratively using YAML file from a GitLab repo. It is possible to do this with custom CI/CD script, but I thought it could be a fun project to experiment with OpenTofu

GitLab provides ways to manage Terraform state, but I find the instructions riddled with uncertainty and fears that my shared state and plans might include passwords, and that they could be stolen from there.

I don't want to spend my brain cells on fears, so I want a stateless OpenTofu mode. I am fine with maintaining all YouTube ids in config files manually, and store all API passwords as CI/CD secrets. Is that possible?

[ghost]

Generally, no. State is at the heart of OpenTofu and it can't be easily disabled. Also, OpenTofu doesn't have a method of automatic reconciliation based on resource IDs unless the provider explicitly implements it. For example, if you have a resource and rename it, that will typically result in the resource being deleted and recreated, which is quite catastrophic for a YouTube video. OpenTofu works best if you manage everything with it, it doesn't do as well for partially-managed scenarios.

For your specific use case, Ansible may be a better tool if a YouTube integration exists for it. However, given my personal experience with the YouTube API and Google APIs in general, I'd be very careful because rate limits can cause problems if the integration doesn't handle the error codes properly. Updating descriptions of even hundreds of videos is likely less work than trying to build a stable, working integration.

[abitrolly]

As far as I know YouTube video ID can not be renamed, and can not be recreated, so the recreating resource scenario doesn't apply here. What a tool should do in the case of missing ID here, is to fail.

In the end I am going to write simple Python script for the integration, and probably ask Gemini to do it for me, but I was interested to have some engine that can detect changes needed and ask to apply them. Ansible is an option too, but it is a bit ugly on the UX, and I don't think it has interactive mode.