Introduction to AWS CDK

The AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) is an open-source framework that lets you define cloud infrastructure using familiar programming languages. Instead of writing YAML or JSON templates, you use TypeScript, Python, Java, C#, or Go to define your resources. Under the hood, the CDK generates CloudFormation templates, so you get all the benefits of CloudFormation — dependency resolution, rollback, drift detection — combined with the full power of a programming language.

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Why CDK?

CloudFormation templates are powerful but have limitations:

• Verbosity — even simple architectures require hundreds of lines of YAML
• No abstraction — you cannot create reusable functions or classes in YAML
• No loops — you cannot iterate over a list to create multiple similar resources
• Limited testing — YAML templates are difficult to unit test
• No IDE support — no autocomplete, no type checking, no refactoring tools

The CDK addresses all of these by letting you use a real programming language.

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How the CDK Works

The CDK workflow has three layers:

1. CDK App