Provision accounts with AWS Control Tower Account Factory for Terraform (AFT) - AWS Control Tower
This documentation is a draft for private preview for regions in the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. Documentation content will continue to evolve. Published: December 31, 2025.

Provision accounts with AWS Control Tower Account Factory for Terraform (AFT)

AWS Control Tower Account Factory for Terraform (AFT) adopts a GitOps model that automates the process of account provisioning and updating in AWS Control Tower.

With AFT, you create an account request Terraform file, which contains the input that invokes the AFT workflow. After account provisioning and updating finishes, the AFT workflow continues by running the AFT account provisioning framework and account customizations steps.

AFT doesn't impact workflow performance in AWS Control Tower. If you provision an account through AFT or Account Factory, the same backend workflow occurs.

Prerequisites

Note

AFT account provision must target an organizational unit (OU) with AWSControlTowerBaseline enabled in AWS Control Tower.

When you're getting started with AFT, you will create the following:

Tip

You can create the AFT management account from the AWS Control Tower console with Create account. For more information, see Methods of provisioning.

Also, optionally, you can create an account template folder to help define your additional accounts, in the aft-account-customizations repository.

For accounts enrolled via Auto Enroll:

  • New account creation through AFT continues to work normally.

  • Existing account import requires additional steps:

    • Register OU to create the necessary provisioned products before importing.

    • Register OU will emit CreateManagedAccount and UpdateManagedAccount events, enabling AFT customizations.

For information about AWS Regions where AFT has deployment limitations, see Limitations and quotas in AWS Control Tower and Control limitations.

The Terraform documentation contains a good overview of how to set up AWS Control Tower Account Factory for Terraform (AFT).