aws-cloudformation

Provision infrastructure from declarative templates.

TLDR

Create a new stack from a template file

$ aws cloudformation create-stack --stack-name [my-stack] --template-body file://[template.yaml]

Update an existing stack with a new template

$ aws cloudformation update-stack --stack-name [my-stack] --template-body file://[template.yaml]

Delete a stack and all its resources

$ aws cloudformation delete-stack --stack-name [my-stack]

Describe stack status and outputs

$ aws cloudformation describe-stacks --stack-name [my-stack]

Validate a template before deployment

$ aws cloudformation validate-template --template-body file://[template.yaml]

Create a change set to preview changes before applying

$ aws cloudformation create-change-set --stack-name [my-stack] --change-set-name [my-changes] --template-body file://[template.yaml]

Package a template with local artifacts and upload to S3

$ aws cloudformation package --template-file [template.yaml] --s3-bucket [my-bucket] --output-template-file [packaged.yaml]

SYNOPSIS

aws cloudformation command [options]

aws cloudformation is the AWS CLI interface for AWS CloudFormation, an infrastructure-as-code service that lets you model and provision AWS resources using templates. Templates define resources declaratively in YAML or JSON format, and CloudFormation handles provisioning and configuration.
CloudFormation manages resources as stacks, creating, updating, and deleting all resources together while automatically handling dependencies. Change sets allow previewing modifications before applying them.

COMMANDS

create-stack

Create a new stack from a template

update-stack

Update an existing stack with changes

delete-stack

Delete a stack and its resources

describe-stacks

Get stack information, status, and outputs

validate-template

Check template syntax and structure

create-change-set

Create a preview of stack changes

execute-change-set

Apply a change set to the stack

package

Upload local artifacts and rewrite template references

deploy

Deploy a template with automatic change set creation

detect-stack-drift

Check for configuration drift from template

CAVEATS

Stack deletions can fail if resources have deletion protection or dependencies outside CloudFormation. Rollback on failure is automatic but can leave stacks in UPDATEROLLBACKFAILED state requiring manual intervention. Large templates may hit API limits and require nested stacks.

HISTORY

AWS CloudFormation launched in February 2011 as one of the first infrastructure-as-code services. It introduced change sets in 2016 for safer updates, drift detection in 2018, and has continuously expanded resource type coverage. The service now supports over 700 AWS resource types.