Async resource provisioning with polling

Many infrastructure APIs accept a create or delete request immediately and finish the work in the background. The API returns a 202 (or 204) with an identifier, and the resource is not actually usable, or fully removed, until a subsequent GET confirms the new state.

Speakeasy-generated Terraform providers can wait for those transitions automatically with the x-speakeasy-polling extension wired into the create and delete entity operations. This guide shows how to apply polling without touching the base OpenAPI document, by layering an overlay.

Scenario: a database that provisions asynchronously

The base API exposes a Database resource with an asynchronous create and delete:

POST /databases returns 202 Accepted once the request is queued.
GET /databases/{id} returns the current status: pending, ready, or failed.
DELETE /databases/{id} returns 204 No Content while tear-down continues asynchronously.

Base spec (excerpt)

openapi.yaml


paths:
  /databases:
    post:
      operationId: createDatabase
      x-speakeasy-entity-operation: Database#create
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              $ref: "#/components/schemas/DatabaseRequest"
      responses:
        "202":
          description: Database creation accepted; provisioning asynchronously.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: "#/components/schemas/Database"
 
  /databases/{id}:
    parameters:
      - name: id
        in: path
        required: true
        schema:
          type: string
    get:
      operationId: getDatabase
      x-speakeasy-entity-operation: Database#read
      responses:
        "200":
          description: OK
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: "#/components/schemas/Database"
        "404":
          description: Not found
    delete:
      operationId: deleteDatabase
      x-speakeasy-entity-operation: Database#delete
      responses:
        "204":
          description: Deletion accepted; tear-down is asynchronous.
 
components:
  schemas:
    Database:
      type: object
      required: [id, status]
      properties:
        id:
          type: string
        name:
          type: string
        status:
          type: string
          enum: [pending, ready, failed]

Overlay: add polling to create and delete

Apply polling as an overlay so the base spec stays untouched. The overlay does two things:

Declares named polling strategies on the GET operation.
Wires those strategies into the create and delete entity operations so Terraform waits after each lifecycle step.

overlay.yaml


overlay: 1.0.0
info:
  title: Add async polling to Database
  version: 0.0.0
actions:
  # 1. Define polling strategies on the read operation.
  - target: $.paths['/databases/{id}'].get
    update:
      x-speakeasy-polling:
        - name: WaitForReady
          successCriteria:
            - condition: $statusCode == 200
            - condition: $response.body#/status == "ready"
          failureCriteria:
            - condition: $statusCode == 200
            - condition: $response.body#/status == "failed"
        - name: WaitForDeleted
          successCriteria:
            - condition: $statusCode == 404
 
  # 2. Attach the read operation as a follow-up to create and delete,
  #    using each polling strategy.
  - target: $.paths['/databases/{id}'].get
    update:
      x-speakeasy-entity-operation:
        - Database#read
        - entityOperation: Database#create#2
          options:
            polling:
              name: WaitForReady
              delaySeconds: 2
              intervalSeconds: 5
              limitCount: 120
        - entityOperation: Database#delete#2
          options:
            polling:
              name: WaitForDeleted
              intervalSeconds: 5
              limitCount: 60

Apply the overlay alongside the base spec with speakeasy overlay apply -s openapi.yaml -o overlay.yaml, or attach it to a Terraform source with speakeasy configure sources.

What this produces

After terraform apply creates a database, the provider calls GET /databases/{id} on a 5-second interval, after a 2-second initial delay, until status == "ready". Polling fails fast if status == "failed" or after 120 attempts.
After terraform destroy, the provider polls until the GET returns 404, confirming tear-down completed.
The #2 suffix on Database#create#2 and Database#delete#2 tells the generator to run the GET as a second step of the create or delete lifecycle. That is how the read operation is reused as a wait step without colliding with the normal Database#read.

Tuning knobs

The behavior of each strategy is controlled by a small set of fields on x-speakeasy-polling. Per-resource values under options.polling (shown in the overlay above) override the defaults declared on the operation.

delaySeconds: Initial wait before the first poll.
intervalSeconds: Time between polls.
limitCount: Maximum poll attempts before giving up.
successCriteria: All conditions must be true within a single poll response to stop polling successfully.
failureCriteria: All conditions must be true within a single poll response to stop polling and surface an error. Use multiple criteria to assert against the same response (e.g. $statusCode == 200 and $response.body#/status == "failed"); failure does not compose across separate polls.

Conditions use OpenAPI runtime expressions . The two most common contexts are $statusCode and $response.body#/<json-pointer>. See the polling reference for the full criterion grammar, including regex matching.

Last updated on May 6, 2026