# Provider

> An OpenTofu/Terraform plugin that enables interaction with a specific infrastructure API or service.

A *provider* is an OpenTofu/Terraform plugin that translates HCL resource declarations into API calls for a specific infrastructure platform or service. Providers are the integration layer that allows OpenTofu to manage resources across hundreds of different systems.

Each provider is responsible for:

- Authenticating with the target platform's API
- Exposing resource types (e.g., `aws_vpc`, `kubernetes_deployment`) that can be declared in HCL
- Managing create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations on resources

Common providers used in the Panfactum stack include:

- **AWS**: Manages AWS resources (VPCs, EKS clusters, IAM roles, etc.)
- **Kubernetes**: Manages Kubernetes resources
- **Helm**: Deploys Helm charts
- **Vault**: Manages HashiCorp Vault resources

Providers must be declared in the `terraform.required_providers` block and initialized before a module can be deployed. Panfactum's Terragrunt scaffolding automatically handles provider configuration for the most common providers via the `pf-tf-init` command.