New action: aws_sfn_start_execution

[YakDriver]

Rollback Plan

If a change needs to be reverted, we will publish an updated version of the library.

Changes to Security Controls

Are there any changes to security controls (access controls, encryption, logging) in this pull request? If so, explain.

Description

This PR adds the aws_sfn_start_execution action, enabling imperative execution of Step Functions state machines within Terraform configurations. The action supports all key StartExecution API parameters including JSON input data, custom execution names, version/alias-qualified ARNs, and X-Ray tracing headers. Implementation includes comprehensive end-to-end acceptance tests that validate real AWS integration, proper error handling, and idempotency behavior for both STANDARD and EXPRESS workflows. The action follows established provider patterns and includes complete documentation with practical usage examples for CI/CD pipelines, environment-specific processing, and complex workflow orchestration scenarios.

Relations

Relates:

• New action: aws_ec2_stop_instance #43700
• New action: aws_cloudfront_create_invalidation #43955
• New action: aws_lambda_invoke #43972
• New action: aws_ses_send_email #44214
• New action: aws_sns_publish #44232
• New action: aws_codebuild_start_build #44444
• New action: aws_transcribe_start_transcription_job #44445
• New action: aws_sfn_start_execution #44464

References

Output from Acceptance Testing

2025/09/25 20:04:23 Creating Terraform AWS Provider (SDKv2-style)...
2025/09/25 20:04:23 Initializing Terraform AWS Provider (SDKv2-style)...
=== RUN   TestAccSFNStartExecutionAction_basic
=== PAUSE TestAccSFNStartExecutionAction_basic
=== RUN   TestAccSFNStartExecutionAction_withName
=== PAUSE TestAccSFNStartExecutionAction_withName
=== RUN   TestAccSFNStartExecutionAction_emptyInput
=== PAUSE TestAccSFNStartExecutionAction_emptyInput
=== CONT  TestAccSFNStartExecutionAction_basic
=== CONT  TestAccSFNStartExecutionAction_emptyInput
=== CONT  TestAccSFNStartExecutionAction_withName
--- PASS: TestAccSFNStartExecutionAction_basic (39.95s)
--- PASS: TestAccSFNStartExecutionAction_withName (121.27s)
--- PASS: TestAccSFNStartExecutionAction_emptyInput (186.24s)
PASS
ok  	github.com/hashicorp/terraform-provider-aws/internal/service/sfn	191.367s

[github-actions]

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[ewbankkit]

LGTM 🚀.

[github-actions]

Warning

This Issue has been closed, meaning that any additional comments are much easier for the maintainers to miss. Please assume that the maintainers will not see them.

Ongoing conversations amongst community members are welcome, however, the issue will be locked after 30 days. Moving conversations to another venue, such as the AWS Provider forum, is recommended. If you have additional concerns, please open a new issue, referencing this one where needed.

[github-actions]

This functionality has been released in v6.15.0 of the Terraform AWS Provider. Please see the Terraform documentation on provider versioning or reach out if you need any assistance upgrading.

For further feature requests or bug reports with this functionality, please create a new GitHub issue following the template. Thank you!

[github-actions]

I'm going to lock this pull request because it has been closed for 30 days ⏳. This helps our maintainers find and focus on the active issues.
If you have found a problem that seems related to this change, please open a new issue and complete the issue template so we can capture all the details necessary to investigate further.