AWS Cloud Development Kit

The AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) is an open source software development framework that enables developers to define cloud infrastructure in code using familiar programming languages including TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Java, C Sharp, and Go. Unlike declarative infrastructure-as-code tools like CloudFormation YAML or Terraform HCL, the AWS CDK lets developers use the full power of general-purpose programming languages including loops, conditionals, functions, classes, and type checking to compose and abstract cloud infrastructure patterns. The CDK synthesizes code into AWS CloudFormation templates for deployment, inheriting CloudFormation reliability, rollback capabilities, and drift detection. The Construct Library provides high-level abstractions called constructs that encapsulate AWS best practices, with three levels of abstraction: L1 constructs map directly to CloudFormation resources, L2 constructs provide sensible defaults and best-practice configurations, and L2 pattern constructs compose multiple resources into complete architectural patterns like ApplicationLoadBalancedFargateService or LambdaRestApi. The CDK includes over 900 construct types covering virtually all AWS services. The CDK CLI supports project initialization, unit testing of infrastructure code, diffing deployed and local stacks, and deployment with change sets. AWS CDK is open source under Apache 2.0, with active community contributions through the construct hub for sharing reusable constructs, and enterprise adoption at companies including Amazon, Netflix, and HSBC.