former2's appeal is that there is nothing to install. Open a browser, point it at an account, tick the resources you want, and get infrastructure code in whichever format you asked for. If you have outgrown it, the reason is almost always one of three, and they lead to different places.

What former2 is genuinely good at

Worth stating clearly, because the alternatives are not strictly better.

No install. Nothing to package, approve or maintain. For a one-off on a machine you do not control, that is decisive.

Several output formats. CloudFormation, Terraform, CDK and others from the same scan. If you have not settled on an IaC language, generating more than one is genuinely useful for comparing them.

Selective. You pick individual resources rather than sweeping whole services. When you want three things out of an account containing three thousand, that is exactly right.

The three reasons people move on

Scale. Ticking boxes works for tens of resources and stops working for hundreds. There is no way to say "everything in these five services across these three regions" and walk away.

It is a snapshot. No scheduling, no drift detection, no history. Run it again next month and you get a second unrelated pile of files. Nothing tells you what changed.

Credentials in a browser. A browser-based tool needs credentials to reach your account. Plenty of teams are fine with that for a one-off and not fine with it as a standing practice, and some security policies settle the question for you.

Where to go, by reason

If the problem is scale, and you want HCL. A whole-account exporter such as Terraformer sweeps services rather than resources. It brings its own output problems, which are specific and enumerated on the Terraformer alternatives page.

If the problem is scale, and you are on CloudFormation. AWS can scan an account and generate a template from discovered resources, which then feeds CDK. It comes from the party that owns the APIs, and if you are not committed to Terraform it is a serious option.

If you only need a handful of resources. Terraform's own import block with -generate-config-out writes the configuration for you. You supply each resource's identity, which is fine at this size and painful at scale. The tutorial covers the mechanics.

If the problem is that it is a snapshot. No exporter solves this, because none of them is trying to. Scheduled re-scans, drift detection against a baseline and a history of what changed are a different product category.

If the problem is credentials in a browser. Look for assumed roles with an external ID rather than access keys, and read-only permissions you can inspect before granting. Our read-only role guide gives the exact policy and trust relationship, and is worth reading before granting anything to any vendor.

A note on multi-format output

Generating the same infrastructure as CloudFormation, Terraform and CDK is a real feature, and it is worth being clear about what it does not give you.

Each target language has its own idioms, and code translated into all three tends to read like none of them. Generated output in any language needs the same reshaping afterwards: literals lifted into variables, module boundaries redrawn, and a plan that comes back clean rather than proposing to recreate things. Multi-format saves the export, not the review.

If you already know your language, a tool that does that one well is usually the better trade.

What every option shares

Whatever you choose, generated infrastructure code arrives with the same characteristics, and expecting them saves disappointment.

  • Literals everywhere. Subnet IDs, security group IDs and AMI IDs written as values, because that is what was found. Accurate, and not portable until you lift them.
  • Boundaries that are not yours. Generators group by service. Teams group by application or environment.
  • A first plan that needs reading. Some diffs are benign, such as flags the AWS API never returns. Some are not, such as a proposed destroy and recreate caused by an attribute the import left empty. Never apply a first plan without reading it.
  • Resources you forgot about. That is the export working correctly.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best former2 alternative?

It depends why you outgrew it. For scale with Terraform output, a whole-account exporter such as Terraformer. For scale on CloudFormation, AWS's own template generation from discovered resources. For a handful of resources, Terraform's native import block. For scheduling and drift detection, none of the exporters, because that is a different category.

Is former2 safe to use with my AWS credentials?

It needs credentials to reach your account, and running that in a browser is a judgement many teams accept for a one-off and decline as standing practice. If your policy rules it out, look for tools using an assumed role with an external ID and read-only permissions you can inspect before granting.

Can former2 export an entire AWS account?

It is designed around selecting individual resources, which works well for tens and becomes impractical for hundreds. There is no way to express everything in a set of services across a set of regions and walk away. That is what whole-account exporters are for.

Does former2 detect drift?

No. It produces a point-in-time export. There is no scheduling, no comparison between runs and no history, so running it twice gives you two unrelated sets of files with nothing to say what changed.

Is multi-format output actually useful?

For deciding between IaC languages, yes. Beyond that it saves the export rather than the review: each language has its own idioms, and code translated into all three tends to read like none of them. Generated output still needs literals lifted, boundaries redrawn and a plan that comes back clean.

Why does generated code contain hardcoded resource IDs?

Because the export writes what it found, and what it found were literal subnet, security group and AMI IDs. That is an accurate snapshot rather than reusable code, so anything destined for a second environment needs those lifted into variables or data sources.

Should I use former2 or the Terraform import block?

Use the import block if you are on Terraform and need a bounded set of resources, since it is official and produces configuration matching your provider version. Use former2 when you want no install, when you are selecting from a large account by hand, or when you want to see the same resources rendered in more than one IaC language.