Terraform Provider Configuration and Authentication

How a provider accepts connection settings and resolves credentials. Poor authentication UX is the first thing every user of a provider hits; a well-designed credential provider chain is what separates a production-grade provider from a demo. The examples use a fictional examplecloud provider and the Plugin Framework.

References (load when needed):

• references/credential-chain.md — complete, compilable credential chain implementation (providers, chain, file profiles, Configure wiring, tests)
• references/case-studies.md — how the AWS provider (aws-sdk-go-base) and smaller providers structure real credential chains

Provider Schema for Authentication