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Concepts

Building a PII Catalog with Terraform

Andrios Robert

• 1 min read

The data was leaking, but nobody knew where. The PII catalog was blind.

Terraform can fix that.

A PII catalog built with Terraform is not just possible—it’s fast, repeatable, and version-controlled. By defining your catalog as code, you can track sensitive data sources with precision. No more brittle spreadsheets or scattered configs. Every PII asset is documented in the same language your infrastructure uses.

What is a PII Catalog in Terraform?
A PII catalog is a structured inventory of all personally identifiable information across your systems. In Terraform, it becomes a declarative set of resources and variables. Each entry defines a table, column, or dataset containing PII. You can tie these definitions to data tagging policies, IAM rules, and automated alerts.

Why Manage PII Catalogs as Code?
Infrastructure as code removes guesswork. Terraform gives you:

  • Consistency: Every environment provisions the same PII catalog.
  • Auditability: Version history in Git for every change.
  • Automation: Integrate PII tagging into CI/CD pipelines.
  • Controls: Apply fine-grained permissions directly in Terraform.

How to Build a PII Catalog in Terraform

  1. Define Resources: Create Terraform modules for databases, storage buckets, and datasets.
  2. Tag PII Fields: Use resource metadata and labels to flag sensitive elements.
  3. Integrate Policies: Link catalog entries to data loss prevention and access control rules.
  4. Test in Dev: Validate catalog accuracy in a non-production environment.
  5. Deploy and Monitor: Push to production and hook into monitoring tools for drift detection.

Best Practices

  • Keep a single source of truth. Avoid manual updates outside Terraform.
  • Use variables and locals for reusability.
  • Limit access to Terraform state files—they contain live references to PII sources.
  • Run automated scans after every apply to ensure compliance.

A PII Catalog Terraform workflow locks sensitive data into a system you can trust. No hidden fields. No missing tables. Just a clean, codified map of where every critical byte lives.

You can see this in action now. Go to hoop.dev and spin up a live PII catalog with Terraform integration in minutes.