---
description: >
  The `data` block defines data sources within your Packer configuration. Learn how to configure `data` blocks. 
page_title: data block referenece
---

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> [!IMPORTANT]  
> **Documentation Update:** Product documentation previously located in `/website` has moved to the [`hashicorp/web-unified-docs`](https://github.com/hashicorp/web-unified-docs) repository, where all product documentation is now centralized. Please make contributions directly to `web-unified-docs`, since changes to `/website` in this repository will not appear on developer.hashicorp.com.
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# `data` block

The `data` block defines data sources within your Packer configuration. The following example instructs Packer to query the `amazon-ami` data source for information to use in the template.

`@include 'from-1.5/datasources/example-block.mdx'`

Refer to [Data Sources](/packer/docs/templates/hcl_templates/datasources) for instructions about using the `data` block in your configuration.