AWS CDK Development

Infrastructure as code development using AWS CDK with patterns, references, and validation scripts for stack management.

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npx degit LangbaseInc/agent-skills/aws-cdk-development my-aws-cdk

Overview

Build cloud infrastructure using AWS CDK (Cloud Development Kit) with TypeScript, Python, or other supported languages.

Key Features

Type Safety - Full IDE support and type checking
Reusable Constructs - Component libraries
Higher-Level Abstractions - L3 constructs
Testing - Unit and integration tests
Best Practices - Built-in patterns

Supported Languages

TypeScript (recommended)
Python
Java
C#
Go

Core Concepts

Constructs

Building blocks of CDK applications:

L1 (CFN Resources) - Direct CloudFormation
L2 (Curated) - Enhanced with defaults
L3 (Patterns) - Complete architectures

Stacks

Units of deployment:

export class MyStack extends Stack {
  constructor(scope: Construct, id: string, props?: StackProps) {
    super(scope, id, props);

    // Define resources
    new s3.Bucket(this, 'MyBucket');
  }
}

Apps

Entry point:

const app = new App();
new MyStack(app, 'MyStack');

Common Patterns

API with Lambda

const api = new apigateway.RestApi(this, 'Api');
const lambda = new lambda.Function(this, 'Handler', {
  runtime: lambda.Runtime.NODEJS_18_X,
  handler: 'index.handler',
  code: lambda.Code.fromAsset('lambda'),
});
api.root.addMethod('GET', new apigateway.LambdaIntegration(lambda));

S3 Static Website

const bucket = new s3.Bucket(this, 'Website', {
  websiteIndexDocument: 'index.html',
  publicReadAccess: true,
});

DynamoDB Table

const table = new dynamodb.Table(this, 'Table', {
  partitionKey: { name: 'id', type: dynamodb.AttributeType.STRING },
  billingMode: dynamodb.BillingMode.PAY_PER_REQUEST,
});

Development Workflow

1. Initialize Project

cdk init app --language typescript

2. Define Infrastructure

Edit stack files with resources

3. Synthesize

cdk synth

4. Validate

npm test

5. Deploy

cdk deploy

Testing

Unit Tests

test('S3 Bucket Created', () => {
  const stack = new MyStack(app, 'TestStack');
  const template = Template.fromStack(stack);

  template.hasResourceProperties('AWS::S3::Bucket', {
    PublicAccessBlockConfiguration: {
      BlockPublicAcls: true
    }
  });
});

Integration Tests

Deploy to test environment and validate

Best Practices

Use L2/L3 constructs when available
Tag all resources
Enable removal policies
Use environment variables
Implement proper IAM
Enable encryption
Add CloudWatch alarms
Document stacks

Common Commands

cdk init           # Initialize new project
cdk synth          # Synthesize CloudFormation
cdk diff           # Show changes
cdk deploy         # Deploy stack
cdk destroy        # Delete stack
cdk bootstrap      # Setup CDK in account
cdk ls             # List stacks

Security

Least privilege IAM
Enable encryption
Use secrets manager
Enable logging
Implement guardrails
Scan for vulnerabilities

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