AWS CDK Toolkit Library - Developer Preview

[mrgrain]

The AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) Toolkit Library enables you to perform CDK actions requiring programmatic access on AWS. You can use the AWS CDK Toolkit Library to implement actions such as bootstrapping, synthesizing, and deploying through code rather than command-line interface (CLI) commands. With this library, you can create custom tools, build specialized CLI applications, and integrate CDK programmatic access capabilities into your development workflows

📜 Reference documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/api/toolkit-lib/
📦 npm package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@aws-cdk/toolkit-lib

---

We are excited to launch the CDK Toolkit Library in Developer Preview. We want to hear from you and appreciate all feedback!

Please use this discussion for 🗣️ general feedback, 💡 ideas and 🆕 feature requests

🐛 For bug reports, please create a new issue

[dreamorosi]

Just wanted to say that I am really excited about this release. I have just finished migrating our integration test harness from @aws-cdk/cli-lib-alpha to this new toolkit and everything works with no issues.

I have opened two issues related to improvement I think could benefit the toolkit:

• @aws-cdk/toolkit-lib: unable to destroy stack without custom ioHost #157
• @aws-cdk/toolkit-lib: include NodejsFunction esbuild logs in ioHost notifications #158

other than that, great work 👏

[kyptov]

Hi, decided to try this tool. We have two accounts in two regions, one for prod and one for stage. Previously we used CDK_DEFAULT_REGION and CDK_DEFAULT_ACCOUNT to use in our stacks. How to get this values in toolkit?

[mrgrain]

That's right CDK_DEFAULT_REGION & CDK_DEFAULT_ACCOUNT should be available to a CDK app no matter if you are using cdk deploy and await toolkit.deploy(cx).

Are you saying this isn't work for await toolkit.deploy(cx)?

[kyptov]

We are using synth and deploy with CloudFormation. With cdk synth there is CDK_DEFAULT_* env, but with toolkit.synth() there is no.

Here is a reproducable snippet:

class MyStack extends Stack {
  constructor(scope: Construct, props?: StackProps) {
    super(scope, 'MyStack', props)

    StringParameter.valueFromLookup(this, 'test-param')
  }
}

const cdk = new Toolkit()

const cx = await cdk.fromAssemblyBuilder(async () => {
  const app = new App({})

  new MyStack(app, {
    // env: { account, region }, // if uncomment and provide values - synth is working
    synthesizer: new DefaultStackSynthesizer()
  })

  return app.synth()
})

await cdk.synth(cx)

This code will fail, but if you uncomment env in MyStack with valid values than it works.

The fromAssemblyBuilder method calls the callback with AssemblyBuilderProps, which includes context. This was the first place I expected CDK_DEFAULT_* values.

[kyptov]

Oh, my bad. There is process.env.CDK_DEFAULT_* inside the callback. Sorry.

[mrgrain]

I cannot reproduce this, the code fails for me regardless if I use @aws-cdk/toolkit-lib or aws-cdk with the following error:

Error: Cannot retrieve value from context provider ssm since account/region are not specified at the stack level. Configure "env" with an account and region when you define your stack.

However if I adapt either version to be:

  const account = process.env.CDK_DEFAULT_ACCOUNT;
  const region = process.env.CDK_DEFAULT_REGION;
  new MyStack(app, {
    env: { account, region },
    synthesizer: new DefaultStackSynthesizer(),
  });

it works for both @aws-cdk/toolkit-lib and aws-cdk.

[mrgrain]

Note that CDK_DEFAULT_REGION & CDK_DEFAULT_ACCOUNT env variables are only available if credentials can be resolved. Also when using fromAssemblyBuilder() they are only available inside the builder closure.